Scoop: Clear Benefits For Prostate Cancer Screening

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http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/GE0712/S00080.htm

The

Ministry needs to withdraw the outdated guidelines, provide new ones and invest

more resources in encouraging New Zealand men to seek screening from their

GP, " trust chair Associate Professor Lamb said.

He said

traditional arguments against screening - that there is a high risk of false

diagnosis and unnecessary treatment - are no longer valid.

" As

this research shows, the scientific understanding of prostate cancer screening

and treatment has moved on considerably.

" It

is also not good enough to say that prostate cancer is slow growing and may

never cause symptoms or early death. "

" The

benefits of early diagnosis and treatment are clear. Prostate cancer is the

most common cancer affecting New Zealand

men and is the third highest cancer killer of New Zealand men. Early diagnosis

will lead to fewer deaths, decreased morbidity, and reduced burden on the

health care system. "

The

research shows that prostate cancers diagnosed by screening are much more

likely to be at an early stage, when most can be cured by a number of different

treatment options. Therefore the risk of a cancer not being diagnosed until it

has spread is reduced by half.

Snip

The

Cancer Standards Institute research, Prostate Cancer: the new evidence base for

diagnosis and treatment, has been published in the December edition of the

international journal Pathology. It

is an analysis of the most current international findings on prostate screening

and treatment. The researchers are all Associates of the Cancer Standards