Consider that your doctor physically examines your prostate for any signs of potential cancer, such as an enlargement or a hardening of the prostate and whether there are any growths detectable on the gland. Imagine the physician 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 actually have it. Imagine the results actually were not normal.
However, a number of doctors do not recommend men who have no symptoms to test for prostate cancer. They hold that screening has little, if any, value. If of a screening test is abnormal the individual ought to be informed about the results and either be referred to a specialist or be told about the option for diagnostic testing, such as a biopsy. Once more, however, a number of physicians also take the position that, at least under certain circumstances, a male patient who is diagnosed with prostate cancer does not have to treat it immediately and merely needs to carefully monitor the cancer.
If the doctor fails to give the patient the option to undergo screening or fails to tell the patient about the abnormal test results the patient's prostate cancer may spread and metastasize without the man even knowing he may have cancer. However, if a physician detected that the patient's prostate was enlarged or there was a nodule on the gland and the PSA test results suggested abnormally high levels of the antigen and the doctor did not notify the patient about the abnormal results, the man would probably think that meant there was no need to follow up.
If the man does actually have cancer, not informing the patient that he might have cancer will postpone his diagnosis.
A delay might, in turn, make it possible for the cancer to spread. When a cancer metastasizes treatment can at best delay the progression of the cancer and decrease the effects (including pain) of the cancer. There are lawsuits where a physician did screen a male and the test results were abnormal yet the physician failed to inform the patient and did not follow up.
Screening tests can yield false positives. This means that certain patients with abnormal screening results actually do not have cancer. However performing screening tests for cancer is meaningless if there is no follow up as it provides the patient an incorrect sense of security believing that he has no cancer as the doctor screened him and said nothing to him that the tests revealed he might have cancer. Physicians commonly recognize the need for follow up when the results of screening tests come back as abnormal.
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