Last month, a government panel recommended an end to routine prostate cancer screenings, a step further than other major medical groups that urge men to weigh the pros and cons and decide for themselves. But the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force found limited, if any, evidence that screening average men improves survival. That's largely because so many men are diagnosed with slow-growing tumors that never would have killed them; still, they have treatments that can cause incontinence, impotence or even lead to death.
"We really — underline the word 'really' — have to pull back the messaging on prostate cancer," says the cancer society's Lichtenfeld, who himself isn't sure of the test's net worth. PSA testing took off on the basis of "blind faith" that they would work, not science, he says.
Blind Faith seems to be what a whole lot of modern medical advice is based on.
It's freakin flabbergasting.
