Routine PSA Tests for men over 50?

I have tried to post this as a link as a new post several times but for some reason I have got Access Denied and that I would attempting to enter a place I should' not go. So I am posting this link here to a Q&A given by one of the UK's top Focal experts but some of the early questions refer to screening and later on screening and a cut down MRI which could be used to identity patients at an early stage and the reduction of DRE testing that inhibits some men from being tested. Session is long and takes a number of seconds to start but worth viewing I feel.
https://www.google.com/search?q=mark+emberton+q%26a+session+1&sca_esv=496eddfa5fbe46be&source=hp&ei=TNCYZ4n2G6WChbIP5ruY8QM&iflsig=ACkRmUkAAAAAZ5jeXOWHId2FESmDrUwhm_uXttb6voI9&oq=mark+emberton+Q%26A+session&gs_lp=Egdnd3Mtd2l6IhltYXJrIGVtYmVydG9uIFEmQSBzZXNzaW9uKgIIATIFECEYoAEyBRAhGKABSOvYAVCwF1jbtQFwAngAkAEAmAF-oAH3EKoBBDI0LjK4AQHIAQD4AQGYAhygAsQSqAIKwgIKEAAYAxjqAhiPAcICChAuGAMY6gIYjwHCAgsQABiABBixAxiDAcICDhAuGIAEGLEDGNEDGMcBwgILEC4YgAQYsQMYgwHCAhEQLhiABBixAxjRAxiDARjHAcICCxAuGIAEGNEDGMcBwgIOEAAYgAQYsQMYgwEYigXCAggQLhiABBixA8ICDhAuGIAEGLEDGIMBGIoFwgIFEC4YgATCAhEQLhiABBixAxjRAxjHARjJA8ICCBAAGIAEGLEDwgILEAAYgAQYkgMYigXCAgsQLhiABBjHARivAcICCxAuGIAEGLEDGNQCwgIFEAAYgATCAggQLhiABBjUAsICBxAuGIAEGArCAgYQABgWGB7CAgQQIRgVwgIHECEYoAEYCsICCBAAGIAEGKIEwgIIEAAYogQYiQWYAxnxBX9W9AXLDz1MkgcEMjQuNKAHkdgB&sclient=gws-wiz#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:5bf074c5,vid:CTYvk7qk

Edited by member 28 Jan 2025 at 12:51  | Reason: to highlight link

I've just done my bowel cancer screening. It was a crap experience. 😁

Joking apart, I seriously considered not bothering. 'Its bad enough being diagnosed with one cancer!', I thought.

However, I saw sense, and my poo is somewhere with the Royal Mail.

It reminds me of the old man whose doctor wanted urine, semen and stool, samples from him. His wife said, "No problem, we'll take him a pair of your underpants". 

Edited by member 04 Feb 2025 at 09:10  | Reason: Additional text

Today's Times has a two page spread by a world famous specialist in PCa where the topic of screening comes up as below.  I've changed his name to Prof because they don't like names on here even though I think they wouldn't mind in this case:

'GPs are advised against proactively offering the PSA test to any man without symptoms. “There is no screening programme, no letter through the post saying, ‘Come and have a test to check for prostate cancer’,” Prof says. Many find this baffling and outrageous, but he says, “Of three big studies to look at whether screening improves survival of men compared to not screening, only one showed an increase in survival. It means the evidence is still uncertain.

Plus, he says, when you screen for prostate cancer, you find cancers in the prostate that don’t need to be treated. “A third of men above 50 have tiny bits of cancer in their prostate that they will never know about, that will never grow or spread, that will never cause them any problems in quality or quantity of life.” But if they’re found in screening, “A lot of men end up wanting to be treated for these low-risk cancers because they get so anxious.”

However, Prof emphasises that GPs aren’t “banned” from offering the PSA, and if a man is certain he’d benefit he believes that “most GPs will say you can have it”.

Meanwhile, researchers are investigating the value of a targeted screening programme. Prof says: “There are a number of small studies, looking at men aged 45 to 50 who have a higher risk of prostate cancer, either from a family history or because they are of black ethnicity.”

Why not for men in their early forties? For men aged 40 to 44, the risk of prostate cancer is “very, very low’’. Plus, “MRI scans in that group are known to be much less accurate, so we have to be very careful about calls to start screening men from the age of 40.”

It's a good interview in which he mentions a psa test I'd not heard of called EpiSwitch for £905, that Gleason 3+3 should almost always be Active Surveillance and that HIFU is good for small tumours.

It's behind a paywall but the link is here.  Sometimes they open the paywall.    https://www.thetimes.com/life-style/health-fitness/article/prostate-cancer-guide-questions-answered-b3pr9ztmx

Edited by member 04 Feb 2025 at 18:27  | Reason: Not specified