The pros and cons of PSA tests for prostate cancer for midlife and
older men
...
Prostate-specific antigen, or PSA, screening tests are an imperfect
tool for detecting prostate cancer, doctors and public health experts
say.
...
The test measures the level of PSA, a protein produced by normal as
well as malignant prostate gland cells, in the blood. Elevated PSA can
be a marker for cancer. It also can signal a false positive or an
inactive cancer, triggering a painful biopsy, and leading to
overtreatment with punishing side effects, including impotence,
incontinence and bowel dysfunction.
...
When doctors first began doing PSA screening tests, he said, "there
was a flawed assumption that was implicit that if you find any kind of
prostate cancer, you must treat that kind of prostate cancer
aggressively," he said. "Many of them would never have harmed the
patient."
A new era in prostate-cancer screening has arrived, Seibert believes.
Today, instead of men immediately having their prostates biopsied when
they get an elevated PSA test, he and an increasing number of
prostate-cancer specialists recommend first getting an MRI and, when
possible, watching and waiting.
https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2025/05/21/nx-s1-5405613/prostate-cancer-psa-test-age
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