Official resigns amid prostate screening controversy

A medical officer with a federal US health agency is resigning his position amid a controversy about who should be screened for prostate cancer.

Kenny Lin, a family physician and medical officer with the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, which provides scientific support to the independent US Preventive Services Task Force, wrote in his blog that “politics trumped science” after a two day meeting that was due to begin on 1 November was abruptly cancelled (http://commonsensemd.blogspot.com/2010/11/meeting-that-wasnt-and-surprise.html).

The task force was about to vote on recommendations about prostate cancer screening and was likely to have come down against its routine use on men of all ages. If it had done so it …