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Prostate test 'public health disaster': discoverer

06:04, 1969-Dec-31 .. 0 comments .. Link

Prostate test 'public health disaster': discoverer Prostate test 'public health disaster': discoverer (Reuters) - The most commonly used tool for detecting prostate cancerartificial pumpkins, routine PSA#x screening, has become "a hugely expensive public health disaster," its discoverer said on Wednesday.

Dr. Richard Ablin of the University of Arizona joined the ongoing debate over the blood test, saying the screening procedure is too costly and ineffective.

"I never dreamed that my discovery four decades ago would lead to such a profit-driven public health disaster," Ablin wrote in a commentary for The New York Times.

Ablin said that as Congress searches for ways to cut costs artificial pumpkinsin the U.S. health care system, a significant savings could come from changing the way PSA is used.

"The test's popularity has led to a hugely expensive public health disaster," he wrote.

He said the annual bill for PSA screening is at least $3 billion, with much of it paid for by Medicare and the Veterans Administration.

"As I've been trying to make clear for many years now, PSA testing can't detect prostate cancer and, more important, it can't distinguish between the two types of prostate cancer -- the one that will kill you and the one that won't," he wrote.

"Instead, the test simply reveals how much of the prostate antigen a man has in his blood."

Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer in men worldwide after lung cancer, killing 254,Grow lights,000 men a year.

PSA is a protein made only by prostate cells, and levels can shoot up as a prostate tumor proliferates. But levels can also rise as the prostate naturally enlarges with age.

A high PSA #xreading is usually followed by a biopsy, whichartificial pumpkins is a sample of the prostate tissue taken and examined for signs of a tumor. 相关的主题文章：