5027 Green Bay Road, Suite 118 • Kenosha, WI 53144
262.925.8600
How necessary is prostate screening? from Dr. Berglund's blog
An article from Washington Post brings up a question the medical society has been wrestling with for some time. (Click here to read the article.) If you look for prostate cancer and find cancer…now what?
The average person might suggest that finding it is a good thing…early detection means earlier treatment and better outcomes. That's almost always true for cancers. However, there are many people that have slow growing prostate cancer that exist without problems for decades. The treatment, for some, appears to cause more problems than it seems to help.
There's not a definitive answer right now. Some cancers are aggressive and the treatments are effective. In these cases, it appears that aggressive screening and treatment is worth it. In other cases, the cancer is so slow growing and the treatment is causing more damage than the cancer. In this case, even KNOWING that the cancer is there (even if you decide not to get treatment) may cause enough stress/anxiety that it can affect the course of the cancer.
That is all the article talks about. Now for my two cents. I think the answer IS to screen for all disease. However, the problem is that all the treatments that the oncology field has to offer are nuclear radiation and intravenous poisons. I realize that they work, but the wear and tear on the human body is great. If people find out they have prostate cancer (a slow growing kind), it's an opportunity to teach then to eat well, take things that boost the immune system, and support healthy prostate function.