https://www.amazon.com/Great-Prosta...11461&sr=1-1&keywords=the+great+prostate+hoax
In a society in which medicine occupies a charmed and sacrosanct position it's rare to see any serious criticism directed it's way. Even from the outside. Public policy analysis - whether conservative or liberal - seems to think that the only significant issue is how to pay for health care: insurance, payment incentives etc. IOW, all directed at the end stage of the system. As if everything else were just humming along nicely.
So it's pretty rare to see a hard-hitting and courageous attack on the medical system from the inside. The author is an MD who discovered the PSA (prostate specific antigen) and then watched - horrified - as the PSA test was hijacked by the medical system and turned into what is promoted as a prostate cancer specific test.
Here's a quick summary of the author's main points. One, the PSA is not cancer specific. It's present in benign as well as cancerous tissue. And there are too many open variables that can cause an elevated PSA. Wearing pants that are too tight can cause an elevated PSA. Two, there is no specific PSA level that can detect cancer. The reference ranges are basically arbitrary. You can have no cancer with a high PSA and cancer with a low PSA. Three, the PSA test cannot tell the difference between a slow moving cancer and fast moving one. Most men die with a prostate cancer, not from it. Four, prostate cancer is age related. The older you are, the more likely you are to have it. So a PSA test for an older man will "find" cancer but you will still not be able to tell if it is "turtle" or a "rabbit".
What follows this are thousands of useless and dangerous biopsies which compound all the above errors. Then followed by thousands of prostatectomies that destroy what's left of a man's quality of life.
This book is a horrifying and harrowing look at the avarice and corruption of the medical system. Proton beam technology for performing prostate cancer surgery can cost as much as $200 million. And - here I can't help myself - but it's pretty amusing to see all the high-T rogue elephant MDs who doubtless imagine themselves as paragons of Elephant Party self-reliance getting rich by bilking Medicare to pay for their largely useless therapies.
Caveat emptor.
In a society in which medicine occupies a charmed and sacrosanct position it's rare to see any serious criticism directed it's way. Even from the outside. Public policy analysis - whether conservative or liberal - seems to think that the only significant issue is how to pay for health care: insurance, payment incentives etc. IOW, all directed at the end stage of the system. As if everything else were just humming along nicely.
So it's pretty rare to see a hard-hitting and courageous attack on the medical system from the inside. The author is an MD who discovered the PSA (prostate specific antigen) and then watched - horrified - as the PSA test was hijacked by the medical system and turned into what is promoted as a prostate cancer specific test.
Here's a quick summary of the author's main points. One, the PSA is not cancer specific. It's present in benign as well as cancerous tissue. And there are too many open variables that can cause an elevated PSA. Wearing pants that are too tight can cause an elevated PSA. Two, there is no specific PSA level that can detect cancer. The reference ranges are basically arbitrary. You can have no cancer with a high PSA and cancer with a low PSA. Three, the PSA test cannot tell the difference between a slow moving cancer and fast moving one. Most men die with a prostate cancer, not from it. Four, prostate cancer is age related. The older you are, the more likely you are to have it. So a PSA test for an older man will "find" cancer but you will still not be able to tell if it is "turtle" or a "rabbit".
What follows this are thousands of useless and dangerous biopsies which compound all the above errors. Then followed by thousands of prostatectomies that destroy what's left of a man's quality of life.
This book is a horrifying and harrowing look at the avarice and corruption of the medical system. Proton beam technology for performing prostate cancer surgery can cost as much as $200 million. And - here I can't help myself - but it's pretty amusing to see all the high-T rogue elephant MDs who doubtless imagine themselves as paragons of Elephant Party self-reliance getting rich by bilking Medicare to pay for their largely useless therapies.
Caveat emptor.
