Far fewer men being treated for prostate cancer

The number of older Americans treated for prostate cancer plummeted 42 percent since health officials began questioning the benefits of screening tests, a new study shows.

"The finding points to the success of efforts to curtail the use of controversial prostate-specific antigen, or PSA, screening tests," said lead author and IHPI member, Tudor Borza. 

At the same time, his team found, doctors still face challenges trying to convince men diagnosed with early-stage prostate cancer to watch and wait before undergoing surgery or other invasive treatment, Borza said.

Borza, a urologist and research fellow at U-M, said he feared the statistics might mean that too few men are being screened, and among those who do get a prostate cancer diagnosis, too few are following the strategy of watchful waiting and surveillance recommended by urologists for early-stage tumors.