The story does not mention the cost of PSA testing or the costs of prostate cancer treatment. Overtesting that leads to overtreatment has significant cost implications and should be part of the story. The story provides percentages of the cases that are thought to be overdiagnosis, that is cancers that were found by PSA testing that would never have gone on to be detected or cause a problem if they had not been found by screening. The story mentions several harms of PSA testing, including false positive results and overdiagnosis, both of which could lead to unnecessary treatments associated with significant side effects. The story adequately describes the current study and the uncertainty about the use of PSA testing. The story accurately describes the seriousness and prevalence of prostate cancer, highlighting that not all prostate cancers need to be treated, and is careful to explain what a high PSA test means. The story quotes more than one expert who is not associated with the current study. The story discusses the benefits and risks related to undergoing a PSA test–implying that no testing is an option and that this would decrease over-diagnosis. The story could have described more of the tradeoffs involved in this choice. Clearly PSA testing is available. Clearly PSA testing is not a new idea. Because the story quotes several sources, it’s safe to assume it did not rely solely or largely on a news release.
More evidence prostate tests overdiagnose cancer