Balanced account of PSA debate in NZ Herald

NZ HERALD: The Herald’s medical reporter, Martin Johnston, has written a balanced account on where we are with the great PSA debate. READ MORE>

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Undetectable PSA! Yep, I’ll take it, thanks

PROSTABLOG NZ:  The PSA test may get a bad rap from epidemiologists and the Ministry of Health, but so far as I’m concerned it’s a winner.

It’s a reliable post-treatment indicator of whether your prostate cancer is coming back or not, and I’ve just had my two-year test – and it remains undetectable.

That’s very good news, so far as I can discern. My reading of things prostate tells me the two-year mark is a crucial one, a time when recurrence is most likely to rear its unwelcome head.

That doesn’t mean I’m cured. There’s a long way to go before that marker, perhaps a decade.

The only thing I’m not sure about is the fact my PSA never registered much (let alone any change) prior to my diagnosis in 2008.

Does that mean post-surgery PSA tests won’t work on me either.

Nah, let’s not dwell on it.

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The confusion about PSA testing that exists between men and their GPs

NEW PROSTATE CANCER INFOLINK: It has been well understood for some time that there is confusion among men in general and among members of the primary care community about appropriate use of PSA testing. READ MORE>

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Prostate screening misses out in Obama’s new health insurance

ASSOCIATED PRESS: Screening for prostate cancer will not be included in President Obama’s new preventive health insurance next year. READ MORE>

New health insurance policies beginning on or after September 23 must cover — without charge — preventive care that’s backed up by the best scientific evidence. Most people will see this benefit, part of the Obama administration’s health care overhaul, starting January 1.

The list includes tests strongly recommended by the US Preventive Services Task Force, an independent advisory panel that evaluates research.

Of note for men: Screening for prostate cancer isn’t included on the list because its benefits haven’t been conclusively shown by the best research, at least to the high level required by the law.

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Men with low PSA at 60 unlikely to die from prostate cancer

BRITISH MEDICAL JOURNAL: Men with a low PSA score at the age of 60 probably face little risk of dying from prostate cancer – even if they have it already, a new study claims. READ MORE>

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Prostate inquiry needs to be wary of way Swedish screening findings are being interpreted

PROSTABLOG NZ: The debate within medical circles about the benefits – or not – of mass screening for prostate cancer just got a little more foggy in NZ.

Parliament’s Health Select Committee inquiry into prostate cancer was due today to hear from Lannes Johnson, medical director for the Harbour Health PHO, who – if a report in last week’s NZ Doctor magazine/website is to be believed – would enthuse about the results of a “new” study just released from Sweden.

Prostablog reported (also somewhat breathlessly) on the Göteborg study back in July after it appeared in Lancet Oncology, pointing to commentary by Mike Scott at the New Prostate Cancer Infolink.

Despite the positive tone of the NZ Doctor article – the majority of whose sources depicted the study as proof that population-based screening is fully justified – Scott’s analysis does not support that.

And neither does an editorial (represented by one paragraph in the NZ Doctor article) by Cambridge University’s Prof David Neal, which appeared at the time of the Lancet Oncology report.

After rehearsing the contents of the Goteborg study, Scott had this to say:

• This study appears to show clearly that, in a screening-naïve population of men aged between 50 and 70 years of age, biannual PSA testing can lower the risk for prostate cancer-specific mortality by at least 40 percent.
• In addition, the study shows that the proportion of patients diagnosed with prostate cancer and requiring hormone therapy in the screening group (103/1,138 or 9.1 percent) was much less than half that of the patients in the control group (182/718 or 25.3 percent), implying that early detection also reduced the risk for metastatic disease.
• However … the study also shows clearly that (at 14 years of follow-up) biannual PSA screening has no impact whatsoever on the overall mortality rate in the same population.

We are therefore potentially faced with the difficult question of whether mass, population-based screening that does affect disease-specific mortality but does not affect overall mortality is justifiable based on the costs, the effort, and the potential harms to the men who are over-treated.

The single most important fact about this study, as far as The “New” Prostate Cancer InfoLink is concerned, is that it finally has provided us with a highly structured, ongoing assessment of the potential value of mass, population-based screening for prostate cancer in a previously screening-naïve population.

The study also includes full treatment information on all men diagnosed with prostate cancer over the course of the study.

This means that at last we have a real baseline against which to assess the data from all other screening studies, and we can use this baseline to recognize the inherent problems of the PLCO and ERSPC studies, which include short follow-up (to date) in both studies, variation in protocols (within the ERSPC cohorts), and data adulteration resulting from PSA testing among the “unscreened” patient cohort (in the PLCO study).

The data from the Göteborg study may still not provide a convincing rationale for mass, population-based screening based on use of the PSA test, but it certainly does set the standard for what must be expected from any new test that may come along and show promise as a true screening test for prostate cancer in the future.

The one regrettable fact about this study is that if it had included just one additional age cohort (of men born between 1945 and 1950), we might have been able to gain real insight over time into the benefits of even earlier detection for a period of up to 30 years.

A much more cautious note here, then, than these comments in NZ Doctor:

“The Government can hardly say they won’t screen for prostate cancer if the science supports it,” Dr Johnson says, referring to an ongoing Parliamentary inquiry into the early detection and treatment of prostate cancer.

Auckland urologist Robin Smart says the bottom line for him is that the study shows prostate cancer screening could prevent 300 of the 600 deaths from prostate cancer that occur every year in New Zealand. “All of the results strongly suggest that PSA screening is a really good idea,” Dr Smart says.

NZ Doctor concluded:

The results of the Göteborg trial are due to be presented to the Health Select Committee next week (today, September 15) as part of its inquiry into prostate cancer. Dr Johnson will talk about the results during a presentation by Harbour Health on PHO capability for reducing the burden of cardiovascular disease, smoking and diabetes.

Let’s hope the committee takes the time to read more widely about the study.

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Further blow against case for screening all men for prostate cancer

NEW PROSTATE CANCER INFOLINK: NZ politicians currently trying to decide what to do about prostate cancer screening (the Health Selection Committee inquiry) should read the latest analysis of the big randomised European study into PSA testing.

It suggests population-based screening is not supportable. READ MORE> and HERE>

Mike Scott at this website notes:

…it is certainly a fair question for every man of 55-74 years of age and a PSA of less than 4.0 ng/ml whether he wants to have treatment for prostate cancer based on a 553 to 1 chance that treatment will actually affect his long-term survival, and given the well-known side effects of treatment.

We do believe that these data add emphasis to the value of expectant management as a method of caring for men with low-risk prostate cancer.

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Reasons why biomarker cancer tests – like PSA – have their problems

MEDICAL NEWS TODAY: The boom in cancer biomarker investments over the past 25 years has not translated into major clinical success. READ MORE>

The reasons for biomarker failures include problems with study design and interpretation, as well as statistical deficiencies, according to an article in The Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

…if the biomarker is affected by a non-cancer disease, its utility for cancer detection may be compromised. For example, the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) biomarker, which is used to detect prostate cancer, is also elevated in benign prostatic hyperplasia.

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Researchers question need for annual PSA tests on ‘low risk’ patients after prostate surgery

NEW PROSTATE CANCER INFOLINK:  How often after prostate surgery should a “low risk” patient have his PSA tested to check if the cancer is coming back? READ MORE>

Tollefson et al. conclude that,  in low-risk patients, the risk of biochemical failure is inversely proportional to time for which the PSA is undetectable after radical prostatectomy.

They go on to suggest that taking PSA levels every two years should be sufficient to identify the majority of low-risk patients who experience biochemical progression.

The “New” Prostate Cancer InfoLink would certainly agree that annual PSA testing is probably unnecessary in the majority of patients who are treated surgically for low-risk disease if their PSA is undetectable after surgery.

However, the key question is how long should annual PSA testing be carried out before the patient can be switched to testing every two (or perhaps even every three) years.

Based on this paper, it would seem likely that even low-risk patients should all receive at least annual testing for three years after surgery.

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Low-risk prostate cancer patients still get treatment

WEB MED: More than 75% of men diagnosed with low-risk prostate cancer undergo aggressive treatment — either complete removal of the prostate or radiation therapy, according to a new study.

That’s true, the researchers found, even in men with a low level of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) of under 4 nanograms per milliliter, one of the factors taken into account when treatment decisions are made. READ MORE>

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