Dr. Deepak Kapoor Discusses PSA Screening Guidelines

Deepak A. Kapoor, MD, president of the Large Urology Group Practice Association, chairman and CEO of Integrated Medical Professionals, PLLC, believes that regardless of what the guidelines says, urologists are united in their defense of a patient's right to access PSA testing, if it is clinically appropriate.

Over the past two decades, since the advent of broad-base cancer screening, the prostate cancer specific death rate has decreased by nearly 40%, Kapoor says. Additionally, the 10-year survival rate has increased from 53% to over 97%. Simultaneously, adds Kapoor, the incidence of prostate cancer has remained unchanged, indicating that screening did not just detect more cancer but that it also detected cancer earlier, which saved lives.

The most recent set of PSA screening guidelines provide a more nuanced approach than was recommended by the USPSTF over a year ago, which recommended doing away with PSA screening for all men. Kapoor believes the USPSTF recommendation was ill advised and could result in setting back the progress made in prostate cancer over the last 20 years.

The current guidelines, Kapoor says, recognize that it is ultimately the patient's decision whether or not to have PSA screening. Additionally, he notes, there is a role for screening in older men and for young men at high-risk for developing prostate cancer, specifically African American men and those with a family history.

Kapoor believes it is critically important for men understand that the decision to be tested for prostate cancer is personal and should be made in conjunction with consultation from a physician.