New of the week

摘要

A test that millions of U.S. men take in the hope of nabbing cancer early-the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test-got a bad (and highly controversial) grade this week. Based on recent data, the US. Preventive Services Task Force concluded that more harm than good comes from asking healthy men to get a PSA test-and it shouldn't be routinely offered to patients. While a positive result can signal life-threatening cancer, it can also be a false alarm. Positive PSA results can lead not just to bleeding and infections from biopsies, but to "increased risk of incontinence and impotence from prostatectomy and radiation therapy," and even "a small risk of death," says Roger Chou, lead author of a review paper in the Annals of Internal Medicine that backed the task force. After The Cancer Letter leaked a draft of the Chou review on 6 October, the Annals posted it online. The review noted that a large percentage of men in one trial had false positive results, but benefits were small or undetectable. The task force invited comment on its draft on 11 October.