ZERO Outraged Docs Fail to Present Solution in PSA Crisis

More Research Funding Needed to Make Progress to End Prostate Cancer

by Katie Gorscak | ZERO The Project to End Prostate Cancer | 06.30.2009

A new study of the effectiveness and cost of the PSA test for prostate cancer is yet another claim prostate cancer screening has little to no value in lowering the death rate without offering solutions to the problem.

While this most recent study, published in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians, casts a blanket statement about prostate cancer screening, it fails to address those individuals with a family history of the disease as well as those men who will have rapidly growing tumors. While the study suggests PSA testing is costly, the PSA test is far less expensive than late stage treatments which a man who doesn’t catch the disease in its early stages will have to endure.

The patient advocate community stands together in calling for immediate increases in prostate cancer research funding for early detection such as imagining technologies and biomarkers that will more accurately detect prostate cancer and correctly gauge its severity.

We believe the PSA test has contributed to a drop in the death rate over the past two decades. Still, more than 28,000 will die needlessly this year to this scourge because education, outreach and improvements in early detection continue to fall short.

Now is the time for all men at risk for prostate cancer and their loved ones to stand with us and demand action in this crisis.