Physicians Fear Panel Recommendation Will Lead to an Increase in Prostate Cancer Deaths in Florida
TALLAHASSEE, Fla.,Oct. 14, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- The Florida Alliance for Patient Care and Access (FAPCA), believes that the latest U.S. Preventative Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommendation that healthy men should no longer receive PSA blood tests as part of routine cancer screening will result in an increase in prostate cancer deaths in Florida.
FAPCA represents more than 200 practicing urologists, pathologists and radiation oncologists across Florida that treat more than 250,000 patients annually.
"Florida expects to have approximately 17,000 diagnoses of prostate cancer this year," said Dr. Neal Dunn, FAPCA President and President of Panama City Urological Center in Panama City, Fla. "Florida is second only to California in the number of men that will be diagnosed with prostate cancer."
Early detection is critical to the success of prostate cancer treatments. The recent Goteborg Randomized Population-based Prostate Cancer Screen Trial, published in The Lancet Oncology, found that with PSA screening, deaths from prostate cancer dropped 44 percent over a 14-year period, compared with men who did not undergo screening.
According to Dunn, "Since PSA testing came into widespread use by physicians as a diagnostic tool in the 1990s, the rate of deaths due to prostate cancer has dramatically fallen. PSA testing should be used as a risk factor to be weighted intelligently with other risk factors. Right now, the PSA remains the single best tumor marker."
FAPCA urges men to continue receiving prostate-specific antigen (PSA) blood tests as part of their routine prostate cancer screening. FAPCA advises that a man and his doctor should determine the most appropriate diagnosis and treatment.
About Florida Alliance for Patient Care and Access
Florida Alliance for Patient Care and Access (FAPCA) is a statewide association of independent medical group practices that bring together urologists, pathologists and radiation oncologists in a team approach to diagnose and treat disorders of the genitourinary system.
SOURCE Florida Alliance for Patient Care and Access
