More men should be screened for prostate cancer after a massive rise in cases of the potentially fatal disease spreading, a report warns. Based on the information, men between 55 and 69 years made up for the highest part of the patients. This rise is worrisome because these men are the ones who may benefit most from screening and early treatment, the researchers said. Among these men, 3 percent had metastatic prostate cancer.
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The American Cancer Society (ACS) reported that in 2013, 31 percent of men older than 50 had their PSA levels tested, compared to 41 percent in 2008, when the USPSTF guidelines were released. According to authors Adam Weiner and Edward Schaeffer of Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in the U.S., the research highlights a continued need to refine prostate cancer screening and treatment in the United States.
The number of cases of metastatic prostate cancer in 2013 was 72 per cent greater than that in 2004 (1,685).
However, the upward trend in advanced prostate cancer started before the new recommendations, and this cancer is very slow-growing so the effect of those guidelines likely won’t be seen for a few more years.
“Thank God we’ve had the ability to move to other meds for this disease because when I was diagnosed there wasn’t much at all”, Jernigan said. Our study was unable to look at the incidence of metastatic prostate cancer a rate per 100,000 people. The study is in the journal Prostate Cancer and Prostatic Diseases.
Prostate cancer most commonly spreads to lymph nodes in other parts of the body or bones.
Changes in prostate cancer screening practices in the United States have led to recent declines in overall incidence, but it is unknown whether relaxed screening has led to changes in the incidence of advanced and metastatic prostate cancer at diagnosis. That age group saw a 92 percent surge in cases in the past decade, from 702 new cases in 2004 to 1,345 in 2013. This is why it’s so important to get an annual prostate cancer screening. We need to learn who needs screening the most and how often screens should be offered in order to best prevent overdiagnosing patients who don’t need treatment and missing catching prostate cancer in a treatable form.
“If I were a patient, I would want to be vigilant”.
After skin cancer, prostate cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer among men in the U.S.
The government task force is reviewing the latest evidence which could lead to changes in its recommendation against PSA screening.
The conclusions of the study suggest that screening guidelines and treatment plans should be based on the patient’s own risk factors and medical record.
In the US, however, the PLCO found no difference in prostate cancer death between the intervention and control arms.
“This will be particularly critical for population health economics in the US, considering the added cost of care for metastatic prostate cancer and an aging constituency whose population over the age of 65 will double to over a projected 80 million by the year 2050”, Schaeffer noted.
Age 45 for men at high risk of developing prostate cancer.
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Age 40 for men at even higher risk (those with more than one first-degree relative who had prostate cancer at an early age).
