US guideline may have led to drop in PSA testing among primary care physicians, studies find

The controversial US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) guidelines that recommended against routine prostate cancer screening with the prostate specific antigen (PSA) test may be changing the practice of primary care physicians in the United States, two small studies have shown.

The USPSTF issued its recommendation in 2012 after concluding that the reduction in prostate cancer mortality 10 to 14 years after the introduction of PSA based screening was “at most, very small, even for men in the optimal age range of 55 to 69 years,” while the risk of harm from follow-up studies and treatment was substantial.1 The USPSTF recommendations applied to men without …