PSA test reduces prostate cancer death rate by nearly 50%: NCI

Jul 16 2010

NCI Admits its Previous Prostate Cancer Study was 'Contaminated' Following the Release of New Data that Shows PSA Test Saves Lives

The nation's leading authority on cancer has thrown out its own study on prostate cancer screening, now saying that PSA testing reduces the prostate cancer death rate by nearly 50 percent.

In its July 13th bulletin, the National Cancer Institute says findings from the Goteborg Randomized Population-Based Prostate Cancer Screening Trial - a study NCI partially funded in Sweden - shows "PSA screening substantially improves cancer-specific survival without the extent of over-diagnosis and overtreatment." The Swedish study showed testing reduces the prostate cancer mortality rate by 44 percent.  That prompted NCI to admit there was a "significant amount of contamination" in its earlier Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian study (PLCO), which suggested there was no mortality benefit with the PSA test.

"Careless mistakes like this may be costing men their lives. You can't publish that there is no value in getting tested if you don't have the right data to back that claim up," said Skip Lockwood, ZERO's CEO. "Admitting you were wrong is the first step - the American Cancer Society has yet to swallow its pride and come clean – so now NCI needs to take action to make things right," said Lockwood.

In the bulletin, NCI says the PLCO data was contaminated because of "men in the trial who had already undergone screening with a PSA test, which a number of researchers have said may preclude the trial from ever demonstrating a cancer-specific survival improvement." Regarding its new data from the Swedish study, NCI goes on to quote Dr. Eric Klein of the Glickman Urological and Kidney Institute who says the "data suggesting that a baseline PSA in men in their 40s and subsequent PSA velocity (the rate of increase in PSA levels) can predict both lifetime risk of developing cancer and potentially lethal cancers."

"ZERO acknowledges the PSA test is not perfect - it cannot distinguish slow-growing tumors from rapidly growing ones - but until new methods of testing are developed, it's still the best tool available for early detection and prompt treatment of prostate cancer," said Lockwood. "We hope NCI will now join ZERO and the more than 17,000 urologists across the U.S. and recommend PSA testing to men since this new data clearly shows it saves lives."

SOURCE ZERO - The Project to End Prostate Cancer