This story describes the newly released recommendations of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force on the utility of routine PSA testing. It highlighted the importance of the new recommendation, namely that the task force indicated that routine testing of men older than 75 resulted in little to no benefit. The story attempted to provide a picture for the reader of reasons for the ambiguity about routine prostate cancer screening and the important trade-off between common side effects and treatment of a disease that often is not problematic. It included quotes from experts who had different opinions about how to consider the risks and benefits of routine testing for, and various treatment of, prostate cancer.
There was no discussion of the costs associated with prostate cancer screening. However, as the cessation of routine prostate cancer screening for men over the age of 75 was the new recommendation by the task force, cost is not really germane to the discussion.
It might have been helpful to include some mention of the potential costs to screening older men and/or cost saving with cessation of screening older men. There are those that are going to interpret the recommendation against routine screening as a cost saving effort.
The story outlined for readers that the benefits of routine screening for prostate cancer are uncertain.
Without quantifying the frequency, the story mentioned the common side effects of treatment for prostate cancer.
The story attempted to explain the conundrum of prostate cancer, prostate cancer treatment, and routine prostate cancer screening. It included numbers indicating that the number of men diagnosed with prostate cancer is far in excess of the number who die of prostate cancer.
The story did not engage in overt disease mongering. It put the natural history of most prostate cancers into appropriate context.
The story included comments from a number of individuals with relevant expertise. The story did not do an adequate job of indicating whether those quoted served on the recommendation task force other than for Ned Calonge, who was mentioned as chair of the US Preventive Services Task Force.
The story was about the new recommendation regarding routine screening of men older than 75 years of age with PSA test; the story presented arguments for and against the use of the test.
The story mentioned that it was about routine screening of men for prostate cancer. As the story lead with "The blood test that millions of men undergo each year", it accurately indicated that this test is readily available.
The story was reporting on the release of new guidelines from the US Preventive Services task force, and highlighted that these recommendations differ from the previous version in that they specify that the benefit of routine screening of men older than 75 years of age for prostate cancer is little to none while at the same time, the harms are moderate-to-substantial.
Does not rely exclusively on a press release as it includes numerous quotes from a variety of experts with differing view points.
Comments
Please note, comments are no longer published through this website. All previously made comments are still archived and available for viewing through select posts.
Our Comments Policy
But before leaving a comment, please review these notes about our policy.
You are responsible for any comments you leave on this site.
This site is primarily a forum for discussion about the quality (or lack thereof) in journalism or other media messages (advertising, marketing, public relations, medical journals, etc.) It is not intended to be a forum for definitive discussions about medicine or science.
We will delete comments that include personal attacks, unfounded allegations, unverified claims, product pitches, profanity or any from anyone who does not list a full name and a functioning email address. We will also end any thread of repetitive comments. We don”t give medical advice so we won”t respond to questions asking for it.
We don”t have sufficient staffing to contact each commenter who left such a message. If you have a question about why your comment was edited or removed, you can email us at feedback@healthnewsreview.org.
There has been a recent burst of attention to troubles with many comments left on science and science news/communication websites. Read “Online science comments: trolls, trash and treasure.”
The authors of the Retraction Watch comments policy urge commenters:
We”re also concerned about anonymous comments. We ask that all commenters leave their full name and provide an actual email address in case we feel we need to contact them. We may delete any comment left by someone who does not leave their name and a legitimate email address.
And, as noted, product pitches of any sort – pushing treatments, tests, products, procedures, physicians, medical centers, books, websites – are likely to be deleted. We don”t accept advertising on this site and are not going to give it away free.
The ability to leave comments expires after a certain period of time. So you may find that you’re unable to leave a comment on an article that is more than a few months old.
You might also like