The PSA Test: A Helpful Screening Tool

Providers with The Urology Group Central Indiana monitor and interpret PSA guidelines that have been developed by a host of national and international expert bodies, including the American Urological Association, the Large Urology Group Practice Association and the European Association of Urology.

Why do we think these guidelines are important? Well, despite considerable evidence supporting the use of Prostate-Specific Antigen (PSA) testing as a screening tool, in recent years there have been conflicting statements regarding the appropriateness of PSA screening. This has resulted in confusion among our patients.

Here are the guidelines regarding PSA testing that our group endorses:

1. Prostate cancer screening must be uncoupled from risks of prostate cancer detection and treatment. Various entities mistakenly assume that a patient with an elevated PSA will undergo an indiscriminate prostate biopsy, and a patient with prostate cancer will inevitably undergo treatment. This is not our policy at The Urology Group.

2.  PSA screening facilitates the early detection of prostate cancer, which results in: reduced risk of being diagnosed with or developing locally advanced an/or metastatic prostate cancer; reduction in prostate cancer-specific mortality; prostate cancer-specific mortality has declined by more than 40% in the U.S. since the inception of PSA screening.

3.  A baseline serum PSA level should be obtained from men in their 40s who have made an informed decision to pursue early detection of prostate cancer.

4.  Intervals for an individual’s prostate cancer screening should be adapted to: the baseline PSA; prostate cancer risk factors (including African-American heritage and a family history of prostate cancer); the potentially short preclinical timeline of aggressive cancers.

5.  PSA screening should be offered to men with a life expectancy of >10 years, regardless of age.

If you have specific questions, feel free to contact your physician at The Urology Group Central Indiana.