ASSOCIATED PRESS: One of the biggest challenges facing modern medicine is the dilemma raised by the early detection of cancer.
Nowhere is the disconnect more obvious than with prostate cancer screening. Most men over 50 have had a PSA blood test to check for it even though major medical groups don’t recommend routine PSAs, worried they may do more harm than good for the average man. READ MORE>
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What a real crock of shit this research is. How many of the dipsticks putting this forward as a credible argument have actually had a PSA test or contracted prostate cancer? It might well change their minds. Had it not been for my diligent GP suggesting I should have an annual PSA test as part of an overall well man assessment I probably would be now suffering from untreatable prostate cancer. I have no clinical symptoms whatsoever, and was shocked to hear that a biopsy had found that I was suffering from intermediate grade prostate cancer. What are they trying to tell me, and the three out of five men who are diagnosed with the disease to some extent; that we don’t matter; and that societal good is better served by adopting a Darwinian “natural selection” process? This is no better than the third world approach to treatment that the Ministry of Health subscribes to. Even today I heard someone say that spending money on grommets is a better use of health dollars than giving me a quality of life for the 20 or so years I expect to be on the planet – and being a significant taxpayer for at least 10 of those. It makes me mad that the health service will happily fork out millions on treating illnesses and injuries that are self afflicted, either through some form of substance abuse or plain old lack of self will which leads to fat-related complaints, but then tell someone who eats right, exercises and otherwise does all he can to maintain good health that there is no money in the system to give him a decent quality of life for an illness that he inherited, unknowingly, from his father. It also makes me mad to see the pork barrel politics being applied where the Minister of Health is sanctioning a $55 million upgrade of Whakatane Hospital in his electorate when his own ministry guidelines would suggest that most of the tertiary services to be provided would be better provided at Rotorua or Tauranga Hospital. Why shouldn’t Whakatane people have to suffer the same tyranny of distance that the people of Taumarunui have to. My advice to all Kiwi men is to ignore this stupid research and insist that their GP orders a PSA test for them annually from age 40.