McNaughton-Collins MF, Barry MJ. One man at a time — resolving the PSA controversy. NEJM. 2011 Nov 24;365:1951-1953.
Who should decide about screening for prostate cancer: expert panels of clinicians and methodologists, primary care clinicians, specialists, or fully informed patients themselves?
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recently released a draft recommendation on screening for prostate cancer, designed for primary care physicians and health systems, and has opened if for public comment until November 8, 2011. After completing a rigorous evidence review, the task force decided to recommend against screening for prostate-specific antigen (PSA), concluding that there is moderate hor high certainty that the service has no net benefit or that the harms outweigh the the benefits. This grad D recommendation applies to healthy men of all ages, regardless of race or family history. The task force’s suggestion for practice for grade D interventions is to “discourage the use of this service.”
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