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The PSA Test: A Helpful Screening Tool

Prostate cancer screening

Despite considerable evidence supporting the use of Prostate-Specific Antigen (PSA) testing as a screening tool, conflicting statements regarding the appropriateness of PSA screening have been reported recently. This has resulted in confusion among our patients and fellow physicians.

Spokane Urology monitors and interprets PSA guidelines that have been developed by a host of national and international expert bodies, including the American Urological Association, the Large Urology Group Practice Association and the European Association of Urology.

We endorse the following guidelines and concepts regarding PSA testing:

  1. Prostate cancer screening must be uncoupled from risks of prostate cancer detection and treatment. Various entities mistakenly assume that a patient with an elevated PSA will undergo an indiscriminate prostate biopsy, and a patient with prostate cancer will inevitably undergo treatment. This is not our policy at Spokane Urology.
  2.  PSA screening facilitates the early detection of prostate cancer, which results in:
  1.  A baseline serum PSA level should be obtained from men in their 40s who have made an informed decision to pursue early detection of prostate cancer.
  2.  Intervals for an individual’s prostate cancer screening should be adapted to:
  1.  PSA screening should be offered to men with a life expectancy of >10 years, regardless of age.

If you have specific questions, feel free to contact your physician at Spokane Urology.

 

Author
Michael Maccini, MD Dr. Maccini is a urologist at Spokane Urology. He provides a wide range of urologic care and surgeries, and particularly enjoys surgical management of benign prostatic hypertrophy (BPH, or enlarged prostate), prostate cancer, female pelvic prolapse and incontinence, and kidney stones.

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