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PSA Screening for prostate cancer

Prostate cancer patients face huge problems in getting an early detection programme established for prostate cancer. Biased judgements, deliberate mis-use of evidence, questionable value judgements, sloppy research and arrogance all played their part to ensure that the National Screening Committee made the recommendation that the Department of Health wanted to hear.

But the recommendation is unsafe and some of us have had enough of this; So, to mark National Prostate Cancer Awareness Month last March, we launched a campaign, with widest possible publicity, to get the process re-opened immediately. First shot in this campaign was to send a letter to everyone we could think of who professes to have at heart the interests of men at risk of prostate cancer, inviting them to sign up to support us. It includes an Annex listing the fundamental flaws in the process that has been followed, under the following headings:

• evidence has been ignored that clearly shows the benefits of screening;
• the decision is based on out of date assumptions about prostate cancer treatment;
• the decision is based on demonstrably false assumptions about the quality of life impact of prostate cancer detection and treatment;
• and finally, and most gallingly for us, the report of the decision falsely implied a level of consensus that does not exist.

Full details of the shortcomings of the work can be found in a report written by Richard Firth of the Prospect group in Bristol, and published in Issue 11 of Prostate Matters. The report itself can be downloaded from here and details of the specific arithmetic errors it reports can be found here. These matters have been brought to the attention of the Prostate Cancer Advisory Group, and it is hoped that an early update of the National Screening Coomittee recommendation will result.

If you know of any particular individuals that you would like to see targeted by this letter, for example local medical policy makers and clinicians, please send them the letter and invite them to join the campaign.

If you, yourself, wish to support the campaign, please go to the petition website, and record your support, AND TELL YOUR FRIENDS!

The Prostate Cancer Support Federation is a member of

This page was updated on 11^th July 2011