Imagine you are a male and you go to your physician for your yearly checkup. Imagine the doctor orders blood tests, including a PSA test which is used for the early diagnosis of prostate cancer. So far, so good. This is how to check whether a man without any symptoms of prostate cancer might in fact have it. Imagine the results actually were not normal.
A number of doctors argue that prostate cancer screening, specifically PSA testing, has little or no worth. They take the position that screening has little, if any, value. One factor, nevertheless, remains constant. If of a screening test is abnormal the patient should be informed about the results and either be referred to a specialist or be told about the option for diagnostic testing, for example a biopsy. Once more, however, a number of physicians also believe that, at least under certain circumstances, a male patient diagnosed with prostate cancer does not have to undergo treatment immediately and merely should carefully monitor the cancer.
Should this happen, the cancer becomes incurable before the patient turns symptomatic and is finally diagnosed. Unfortunately, if a doctor noted that the patient's prostate was enlarged or there was a nodule on the gland and the PSA test results showed high levels of the antigen and the physician did not notify the patient of the abnormal results, the patient would in all likelihood assume that meant the results were all normal. Should the patient does actually have cancer, not informing the patient that he may have cancer will result a delay in his diagnosis.
A delay could, in turn, allow the cancer to metastasize. Once a cancer metastasizes treatment will at best delay the spread of the cancer and lower the effects (like pain) of the cancer. There are cases that allege a doctor did screen a man and the test results were abnormal yet the doctor did not tell the patient and did not recommend further testing or to refer the patient to a specialist.
Screening tests may yield false positives. This means that certain patients with abnormal screening results will not have cancer. However performing screening tests for cancer is meaningless without follow up as it gives the patient an incorrect sense of security thinking he has no cancer as the doctor tested him and did not advise him that the screening tests revealed the possibility of cancer. Doctors typically concur that there is a need for follow up if the results of screening tests come back as abnormal.
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