A new Canadian study suggests some men are likely to die needlessly because of expert reports that discouraged use of a common test for prostate cancer, says a leading urologist, adding fuel to a heated debate around mass cancer screening. The number of men who had biopsies and were diagnosed with both low-grade and high-grade prostate tumours at a Toronto network of hospitals dropped sharply after an American report recommended against so-called PSA screening, the study found. A positive result on the PSA blood test ordered by a family doctor typically leads to patients seeing a specialist and undergoing a biopsy, which confirms whether they do, indeed, have cancer.
