Former President Biden’s prostate cancer diagnosis is highlighting the importance of screening for one of the most common types of cancer in older men.
Biden’s aggressive cancer diagnosis, announced Sunday evening, is causing many to question whether warning signs could have been caught earlier.
However, cancer screening is complicated, and experts say early detection and overtreatment must be balanced.
Prostate cancer is one of the most common cancers that affects men. In the U.S., about 13 out of every 100 men will get prostate cancer during their lifetime, and about two to three men diagnosed with it will die, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found.
However, the American Cancer Society does not recommend routine testing for men at any age. The organization instead recommends that discussions on screening for early detection begin age of 40 for those with a high risk and 50 years for those with an average risk.
“Overall health status, and not age alone, is important when making decisions about screening,” the organization adds.
The United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), an independent panel of experts that makes recommendations on services like screenings, states that men over 70 years old should not be screened for prostate cancer and that men aged 55 to 69 years should be screened based on the patient’s individual judgment after consulting with their physician.
The most common risk factors include age, genetics, family history, and race and ethnicity.
The USPSTF noted that African American men have an increased lifetime risk of developing or dying from the cancer, at 4.2 percent. Hispanic men face a 2.9 percent lifetime risk, white men face a 2.3 percent lifetime risk, and Asian and Pacific Islander men face a 2.1 percent lifetime risk.
The American Cancer Society noted that prostate cancer grows slowly, so screenings for men with no symptoms who have less than a 10-year life expectancy are not recommended because “they aren’t likely to benefit from it.”
If the individual chooses to go forward with screening, the American Cancer Society recommends they get the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) blood test, noting that a digital rectal exam (DRE) may also be done as part of screening.
In some cases, such those with high initial PSA levels, the best option will be a prostate biopsy, the organization noted.
