ABC 2 news health reporter Kelly Swoope tells us some researchers are beginning to question whether we need to do as many screenings as we do.
Could screenings for prostate cancer do more harm than good?
"The harder we look for cancer, the more pseudo-disease we find."
Pseudo-disease is a cancer that won't harm you if left untreated, according to Dartmouth Doctor Gil Welch.
"We assume they're all bad, and we tend to treat people."
That treatment leaves some men with unnecessary side effects --- like impotence and incontinence.
Doctor Welch, who literally wrote the book on screening questions just how useful it is now.
"What we should be doing is tell people the whole story and let different people come to different decisions."
Here’s the increase in prostate cancers diagnosed from 1973 to 2000.
That spike happened when p-s-a screenings hit the scene.
Here’s the number of deaths over the same time. It has barely changed.
"When everyone sees the pattern of the dramatic rise in incidence with no change in mortality, one has to worry that there's been an over-diagnosis."
But not everyone agrees.
"That’s kind of tunnel thinking, you know. Let's not diagnose it because the treatments are bad."
Doctor Gary Onik (oh-nik) acknowledges over diagnosis happens but worries what would happen if screenings stopped.
"There are some that are very aggressive and you find those early, i think you will definitely be saving lives."
The problem is knowing which cancers are slow growing and which ones will kill.
There is still no readily available test to do that.
Kelly Swoope 2 your health.
Doctor Welch says he only questions screenings in men who have no symptoms for prostate cancer.
