PSA testing, prostate cancer mortality, and an update from the ...

Posted on July 7, 2011 by Sitemaster

Back in 2006 a report from a research team in the Tyrol, Austria, suggested that the availability of free PSA testing for prostate cancer risk had lowered the risk of prostate cancer mortality in the Tyrol as compared to all other areas of Austria. This original study is discussed elsewhere on this web site.

A new report by Oberaigner et al. now offers updated information from the Tyrol Prostate Cancer Demonstration Project.? The objective of the new study was to provide an in-depth analysis of the time trend for prostate cancer mortality in the male population of the Tyrol over the 5-year period from 2003 to 2008.

As a reminder for those not familiar with the Tyrol Prostate Cancer Demonstration Project, PSA testing was initially introduced in the Tyrol in 1988-89 and was made freely available in 1993; more than 75 percent of all men in the Tyrol between 45 and 74 years of age are now believed to have had at least one PSA test since 1998. Free PSA testing is still not available in most of the rest of Austria.

The updated findings of the Tyrol project are as follows:

• Between 2004 and 2008, for men aged 60 years and older, compared to the prostate cancer-specific mortality rates for 1989-93, there has been
• A significant reduction in prostate cancer-specific mortality in the Tyrol (risk ratio [RR] = 0.70)
• A moderate reduction in prostate cancer-specific mortality in the rest of Austria (RR = 0.92)

The authors state that these new data, when added to their previously reported results, suggest that PSA testing, when offered to all male members of a large population at no charge, can significantly reduce risk for prostate cancer mortality. They are careful to note, however, that their study was never designed to assess the potential for harms associated with prostate cancer screening, and that ?no recommendation for PSA screening can be made without a careful evaluation of [the associated risks for] overdiagnosis and overtreatment.?

The Tyrol Prostate Cancer Demonstration Project has always been controversial, and one has to be careful not to take the results of this study as established proof of the idea that PSA screening reduces risk for prostate cancer mortality in a defined population (since it actually compares the effect of widespread PSA testing in one group of men to limited PSA testing in another ? albeit similar ? group of men, not selected at random). As we have said before, this study does, however, contribute to the data suggesting that widespread PSA testing is likely to lower the risk for prostate cancer mortality. And the current update does imply that men in the Tyrol are showing such a prostate cancer-specific mortality benefit at 15 years of follow-up.

Filed under: Diagnosis, Management, Risk Tagged: | mortality, PSA, screening, testing, Tyrol

Source: http://prostatecancerinfolink.net/2011/07/07/psa-testing-prostate-cancer-mortality-and-an-update-from-the-tyrol/

smu twins cbe monica bellucci barcode zombieland robert bunsen