Irving, TX – The good news is that new prostate cancer cases reported in the United States have dropped by about 28 percent. The bad news is that those numbers may not accurately represent the amount of men who are currently living with the disease in an undiagnosed form.

A dramatic drop in diagnosis rates has been logged ever since the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force changed its screening recommendations for prostate cancer. Wanting to remove the sometimes problematic prostate-specific antigen blood test from the routine screening mix, the agency altered its screening recommendations a few years ago. Researchers have since found that there was a 28 percent decline in diagnosis rate within one year of the change. The question, however, remains as to whether this simply means thousands of men are now walking around with undiagnosed – and untreated – cases of prostate cancer.

“The screening change recommendation was made to help men avoid unnecessary secondary screenings that are invasive should initial screening results prove to be false positives,” explains Dr. Gregory Echt, founder and lead surgeon at the Las Colinas Cancer Center. “The problem we’re faced with now, however, centers on whether or not men who are at moderate- to high-risk for the disease are being adequately screened at all. There are a lot of questions surrounding the drop in diagnosis rates and what the implications down the road might be.”

Prostate cancer is estimated to affect about 220,000 men each year. About 30,000 men die from the disease annually. For those with more aggressive forms of the disease, early detection is critical for preventing mortality.

“The best bet for men is to discuss at length their risk level for prostate cancer and to make informed decisions on what type of screening should be performed,” Dr. Echt says. “Men who are at higher risk for the disease will want to be more aggressive in regard to early screening than others, but all men ultimately should undergo regular screening after the age of 50 or so.”

About Las Colinas Cancer Center
Las Colinas Cancer Center, a Choice Cancer Care Treatment Center, is committed to providing the personalized, compassionate treatment that can make all the difference in cancer care. Our state-of-the-art facility, located in North Texas, offers those battling cancer and blood disorders a safe haven where they can find professional care from some of the nation’s most experienced oncology specialists in a supportive, caring environment with an integrated approach to treatment.