[Closed] PSA... Don't miss this one chaps

This thread isn't great reading.

For the couple of GPs on here, I'm sure you are remembering that @stanley has advanced prostate cancer with a poor outlook.  Some empathy wouldn't go amiss, this is person, not a statistic.

Some other posters, self included, have been through prostate cancer diagnosis and successful treatment and have voiced that the current setup seems to miss too many cases.

I do recall starting a similar thread on here 9 years ago when I was first diagnosed.  Lots of good came of my post, including making some new, dear friends and lots of great bike adventures with them.  We also did a decent amount of awareness raising in the wider community.

However that thread, and related ones at the time, eventually deteriorated into some disappointing posts from some in the medical profession, bickering around PSA testing and the benefits or otherwise.

deja vu 🙁

Fundamentally it seems to be the same issue as with prostate cancer, some people develop breast cancer that doesn’t benefit from treatment, we just don’t know which ones.

i would challenge that it's certainly not bickering, and it's certainly not NOT showing empathy towards the individuals affected by the disease.

It's simply offering the current medical viewpoint on the topic.

It's actually no different to challenging (is that the right word..? maybe..) a post that said "you can immunise against COVID with tumeric and honey..don't have the vaccine".. some information spread via social media is well meant, but not factually correct. And probably for the most part won't lead to great harm, but sometimes it can.

Essentially, as a medical professional, I felt obliged (even though, maybe in this particular thread, it's not what some want to hear, or maybe not even my place..) to share the current evidence that unfortunately goes against the well-meant OP.

Read of that what you will.

And apologies if anyhting came across unsympathetic - Having never had a terminal or serious diagnosis, I can't relate, but can understand what you must be going through.

Best of luck with it all.

DrP clocking off...

As far as I’m aware there’s no evidence that overall it saves lives. It does reduce deaths from breast cancer, but at a cost of increased deaths from other causes.

Iirc (and I may well be wrong)  this is based on a Danish study that has since been discredited.

@iainc the screening argument is incredibly complex, and not helped by the (IMV) overly emotive tactics used by Prostate cancer UK.

Stating the facts, which still hold true, on an internet forum, which by design, invites comment, is not displaying a lack of empathy IMV.

I did ask the mods to delete this thread for exactly this reason when @stanley started it. In such an emotive subject it becomes impossible to post informed comments without being accused of a lack of empathy for the mere fact of disagreeing.

@reeksy thanks will have to look at that. This is why we have the National Screening Committee whose job is to look at these things in their entirety and make recommendations.