How common is PSA screening in elderly men with limited life expectancies?
Christiaan H Bangma* and Monique J Roobol
Correspondence *Department of Urology, Erasmus Medical Centre, PO Box 2040, 3000 CA Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Email h.j.vanalphen@erasmusmc.nl
This article has no abstract so we have provided the first paragraph of the full text.
The article by Walter et al. contributes to the continuous education that is needed in order to limit the use of PSA screening to those men that might benefit from it. The authors also highlight the fact that it is physicians, not patients, who should be made aware of this, as they seem to be the main cause of frequent PSA testing in elderly men. With a lead time (the period between the time when an asymptomatic cancer is diagnosed by screening and the time when the cancer would have been detected because of symptoms) varying from 12 years for well differentiated prostate cancers detected by PSA screening in men in their 60s, to 8 years for men in their 70s with poorly differentiated cancers;1 there is no indication (apart from onset of symptoms) for PSA determination in the majority of men over 70 years of age.
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