{"id":487861,"date":"2025-10-10T08:28:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-10T08:28:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/487861\/"},"modified":"2025-10-10T08:28:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T08:28:10","slug":"possible-over-testing-for-prostate-cancer-say-oxford-researchers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/487861\/","title":{"rendered":"Possible over-testing for prostate cancer, say Oxford researchers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">In the latest study, published in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bmj.com\/\" class=\"ssrcss-f6h2dj-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">British Medical Journa, external<\/a>l, 1.5 million patients had at least one PSA test between 2000 and 2018, resulting in 3.8 million PSA tests overall.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Almost half of those patients had multiple tests, with 73% never having a PSA value above the point at which they would normally be referred for testing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Researchers also noted that patients in their 70s were far more likely to be tested than younger men, with testing rates were also higher for white men.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Overall, testing rates were two to three times higher in people without symptoms than in patients with symptoms.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The researchers said: &#8220;Although many patients were never tested, suggesting possible under-testing, others were tested only once, which may be insufficient for those at risk.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;The benefit of re-testing and ad hoc screening remains uncertain and requires further research to determine evidence-based re-testing intervals that balance the benefits of early detection with the harms of overdiagnosis.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Naser Turabi, Cancer Research UK&#8217;s director of evidence, said: &#8220;While we&#8217;ve seen breakthroughs in treatment, more research is needed to improve how we diagnose the disease.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;As this study shows, detecting aggressive forms of prostate cancer is complex, and the current PSA test isn&#8217;t reliable enough.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the latest study, published in the British Medical Journa, externall, 1.5 million patients had at least one&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":487862,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[105,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-487861","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-uk","10":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115348930791472410","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=487861"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487861\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/487862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=487861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=487861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=487861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}