Med-O-Meter

6

MedHead Message:

I wish all primary care doctors could read this. A huge cost burden is being placed on all of us by doing unnecessary prostate biopsies. Mild to moderate elevations of PSA should be followed by free PSA testing and PSA velocity. Just say no to unnecessary prostate biopsies! Not only does it cost you money, it also unnecessarily increases the risk of infection and erectile function disorders, which is a real bummer to most men. Remember, most men who live long enough will have some form of prostate cancer, but something else will kill them before the prostate cancer will.

References:

1. The cutoff level of free/total prostate specific antigen (f/t PSA) ratios in the diagnosis of prostate cancer: a validation study on a Turkish patient population in different age categories Kaohsiung J Med Sci. 2014 Nov;30(11):545-50 2. A comparative performance analysis of total PSA, percentage free PSA, PSA velocity, and PSA density versus the detection of primary circulating prostate cells in predicting initial prostate biopsy findings in Chilean men 3. https://amino.com/blog/prostate-biopsy-cost/