Prostate Blood Testing - Yes or No

PSA, or Prostatic Specific Antigen, is a test that was once thought to be a valuable way to screen for prostate cancer. Unfortunately many studies have shown that screening every male does not seem to lower mortality rates.

Many doctors have strong feelings about this. I still perform the test in men over 40, but may stop at age 75. The US Public health Task Force no longer recommends routine screening.

Now studies are being performed in subgroups to see when it might actually be useful.

In a large group in Sweden, researchers found that if screening was done at age 60, if the PSA level was less than 2.0 there was no advantage to further testing. However for levels of 2 or higher, mortality was decreased by continuing annual testing.

My belief is that testing should be done annually until a man's life expectancy is less than 10 years. This is usually at about age 75 but in healthier adults can be later. But I have no solid scientific evidence for this opinion.