To the Editor: The general practitioners’ dilemma is acute. Women asking for mammography and/or testing for ovarian cancer; men asking for prostate-specific antigen (PSA) testing for prostate cancer. The debate, fuelled by uncertain knowledge, rages in the general medical journals,1,2 including contributions in the 17 August 2009 issue of the MJA.3,4
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- Sydney, NSW.
Correspondence: parnold@ozemail.com.au
- 1. Jørgensen KJ, Gøtzsche PC. Overdiagnosis in publicly organised mammography screening programmes: systematic review of incidence trends. BMJ 2009; 339: b2587.
- 2. Brown PO, Palmer C. The preclinical natural history of serous ovarian cancer: defining the target for early detection. PLoS Med 2009; 6: e1000114. doi: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1000114.
- 3. Smith DP, Banks E, Clements MS, et al. Evidence-based uncertainty: recent trial results on prostate-specific antigen testing and prostate cancer mortality [editorial]. Med J Aust 2009; 191: 199-200. <MJA full text>
- 4. Barratt AL, Stockler MR. Screening for prostate cancer: explaining new trial results and their implications to patients [viewpoint]. Med J Aust 2009; 191: 226-229. <MJA full text>
- 5. Stamey TA, Caldwell M, McNeal JE, et al. The prostate specific antigen era in the United States is over for prostate cancer: what happened in the last 20 years? J Urol 2004; 172: 1297-1301.
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