PROSTATE, THYROID AND PANCREATIC CANCER: ALWAYS SEEK A SECOND OPINION!
by Steven Ransom

I was in a UK chainstore recently where leaflets were being distributed on prostate cancer – ‘the silent killer in our midst’. The leaflets contained a great deal of scare-mongering sound-bytes, the whole thrust of the message being that men should go and get themselves tested for prostate cancer as soon as possible. To the more discerning eye, it was immediately apparent that these leaflets contained no accurate or important information whatsoever.

Firstly, there was no mention of the gravely inaccurate nature of the prostate cancer test, which measures levels of a protein called prostate-specific antigen (PSA). Medically qualified opponents of the PSA test prostate have long been stating that prostate tumours, when they occur, are slow-growing and that most men die with prostate cancer, not of it. Furthermore, the tests are costly, often inaccurate and emotionally trying for the patient.1

According to a study carried out at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Centre in Seattle and published in The Journal of the National Cancer Institute, about a third of over-65s screened with the prostate-specific antigen blood test are being overdiagnosed and receiving unnecessary treatment. The study also found the PSA test inaccurate due to the fact that the PSA protein in the blood is also found in men without cancer. The level rises as men age, and also when they have a benign prostate enlargement, or various infections. The study stated that about 35% of men tested would never experience any symptoms of the disease.2 One is forced to consider how many men are undergoing unnecessary treatment for prostate cancer today.

Excerpted from: Great News on Cancer in the 21st Century by Steven Ransom

 

1.ABC News, Screening for Prostate Cancer Urologists Remain Divided Over PSA Blood Test, 15th June 2003 at http://abcnews.go.com/sections/living/DailyNews/chat_catalona000615.html

2. Carbone, Suzanne, ‘Prostate test under fire in study’, The Age, July 2002 at
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/07/03/1025667007433.html