Chapter Five

Janus was looking around on the internet and ran into this blog entry:
http://www.protectpatientsblog.com/2010/03/psa_tests_inventor_says_its_ti.html
    PSA Test's Inventor Says It's Time to Say No to Routine PSA Screening

    The man who discovered the PSA test for prostate cancer now says the test is so
    overused it has become a public health disaster with an annual price tag of $3 billion in
    wasted testing.

    Dr. Richard Ablin writes an op-ed piece in the New York Times calling for the test to be
    abandoned for routine cancer screening for men over age 50. At most the test is useful
    in men with a family history of prostate cancer and also useful to detect cancer coming
    back in men who have already has their prostates removed for cancer.

    Dr. Ablin notes that the appropriate use of the test is a tiny portion of the amount of
    testing now occurring, driven by those who profit from use of the test. He concludes:
    I never dreamed that my discovery four decades ago would lead to such a profit-driven
    public health disaster. The medical community must confront reality and stop the
    inappropriate use of P.S.A. screening. Doing so would save billions of dollars and
    rescue millions of men from unnecessary, debilitating treatments.

    As this blog noted in an entry a year ago, large studies have been published showing
    that the PSA test saves very few, if any lives, when used for routine screening, and it
    causes many men to undergo unnecessary, painful and potentially harmful biopsies and
    surgery.

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Apparently we need fewer doctors and more lawyers.  At least that is the opinion of lawyers.

Could it be that health insurance could lead to people getting prostate checkups and
eventually suffering from the results of the checkups and subsequent biopsies and radiation?  
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/10/opinion/10Ablin.html



End of Chapter Five

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