A prominent U.S. government advisory panel is recommending that men of all ages no longer be screened for prostate cancer by undergoing the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) blood test.
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, an independent group of medical experts in prevention and evidence-based medicine, said PSA screening results in overdiagnosis of prostate cancer and unnecessary treatment that can leave men impotent or incontinent.
Basing its recommendation mainly on two major trials of PSA testing in asymptomatic men in the United States and Europe, the task force concluded screening may only help one man in every 1,000 to avoid dying from prostate cancer.
Well, that’s a relief, only one in a thousand. That is, unless you are the one that could have been saved. It’s not the PSA screening that has all these side effects, but the surgery, right? Those who oppose this say that the PSA is the only effective tool for early detection. This panel is recommending that men of all ages no longer be tested.
The way this is written, it sounds like all these dire side effects are the result of the test. There should be no side effects to a blood test.
This is the same panel that rejected regular mammograms for women in their 40s.
Rationing? You betcha’.
The question is who and what is this panel making these recommendations? Well, even though they are said to be “independent,” they are funded, staffed, and appointed by the HHS (under the direction of “she who sitteth upon many waters,” apostate Kathleen Sebelius.)
The task force (USPSTF), a panel of primary care physicians and epidemiologists, is funded, staffed, and appointed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
More: http://articles.latimes.com/2011/oct/07/news/la-heb-prostate-recommendations-experts-20111007
http://www.acscan.org/pdf/healthcare/implementation/factsheets/hcr-preventive-task-force.pdf
Current members of USPTF (mostly professors) : http://www.uspreventiveservicestaskforce.org/uspstbio.htm
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 charges the USPSTF with making an annual report to Congress…..
HHS, USPSTF, IPAB, IRS, and other government agencies all working together to take over healthcare under obamacare.
Posted: 05.22.12 @ 8:17 a.m.
can i just finish my waffle? 
Death panels?
WHAT death panels?
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Exactly. They want to get rid of the test in order to avoid paying for the surgery. Diabolical.
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Hey, when you’re trying to build a Brave New World, sometimes you have to make sacrifices.
Diabolical is right…….
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