Princeton, NJ Health Care Guide Articles

Concerns Arise About Vitamins and PSA Testing for Prostate Cancer Prevention and Screening

For years, health-conscious men have been taking vitamins and getting
screened for prostate cancer in hopes of avoiding the disease. Now, a
study published last month in the Journal of the American Medical
Association found that selenium and vitamin E supplements do not prevent
prostate cancer and, in fact, vitamin E alone can promote it.

In addition, an influential federal panel recommended last month
against cancer screening with the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) blood
test. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force now recommends that
healthy men of any age no longer be routinely screened for prostate
cancer using the PSA blood test, noting that the test has no net benefit
in terms of saving lives and that it often leads to unnecessary
treatment with moderate-to-substantial harms, such as erectile
dysfunction, urinary incontinence, bowel dysfunction, and even death.

Both messages leave men wondering what they should be doing to ward off
prostate cancer. What is needed, says Fox Chase Cancer Center’s Paul
Engstrom, M.D., a leader of the vitamin study and a prostate cancer
survivor, is a way to distinguish life-threatening tumors from
relatively harmless ones. Currently, biopsied tumor tissue is analyzed
in a lab, but doctors can’t say with confidence which cancers need not
be treated. “We don’t have an effective biomarker to separate out
bad cancers” from the ones that would never become lethal, he says.

“With all of this news, it’s important to keep in mind that
patients are often their own best advocates,” notes Oren Cahlon, M.D.,
Radiation Oncologist at Hunterdon Regional Cancer Center. “Talk to
your doctor about your prostate cancer risk, how you can manage this
risk, and if screening may be appropriate for you. And have an ongoing
dialogue about preventive health.”

For more information about prostate cancer risk assessment, screening,
and treatment, visit www.hunterdonhealthcare.org.

Hunterdon Regional Cancer Center is a partner of Fox Chase Cancer
Center.  Its comprehensive services include chemotherapy, radiation
therapy, clinical research, early detection and screening programs,
support groups, educational programs, nutrition counseling, psychosocial
support, complimentary therapies and cancer risk assessment.