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Richard Ablin, the discoverer of PSA 40 years ago has killed his son. For the New York Times he wrote an article called the Great Prostate Mistake. He pulverizes PSA testing for early detection. He ends with this:
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.
Forget about early detection, just wait for symptoms which in the huge majority will never arise and if so can be treated with either hormones or TURP.
Some tumors behave agressive from the early onset and are deadly, they cannot be cured by local therapies
As pointed in the article as well it is impossible with blind random biopsies to separate the tigers from pussycats, since the sample is not representative of whats really in there. Undergrading and overgrading are huge as compared with RP specimens
The thing with PC is you suddenly accept what you have and then go forward with your choice of treatment which maybe has taken a lot of heart searching to get to.
I would go down the same route again as I just wanted the thing out of my body whatever the extra things I had to deal with. Not for everyone but I have always been a secret worrier and happier knowing it has (hopefully) gone from me.
good luck
Having been diagonosed with PCA and being the type of person who beleives action trumps inaction in all parts life, I am pleased with my decision to have RRP. Fortunately, my side affects have been very, very minimal.
When I see Dennis Hopper at age 73 dying of prostate cancer, I feel pretty good about my choices.
That said, some day, there will hopefully be better tests allow us to know which PCA needs treatment and which we can die with.