El Diario reported that the American Cancer Society issued the guidelines, which change previous frameworks.
Under older recommendations established in 2010, patients and physicians decided together whether to pursue testing after weighing individual preferences. After 23 years of follow-up, the risk of death from prostate cancer was 13 percent lower among men screened regularly compared to those who were not.
Men with Average Risk Should Receive Biennial Blood Tests
- Men aged 50 to 69 with average risk are advised to receive a prostate-specific antigen blood test every two years.
- Elevated prostate-specific antigen findings require confirmatory secondary testing, magnetic resonance imaging, or validated biomarkers before any biopsy is ordered.
Prostate cancer accounts for approximately 2.5 percent of all deaths among American men. Data compiled by the American Cancer Society show that Black men face roughly 1.7 times the likelihood of being diagnosed compared to white men, and about double the risk of mortality.
When elevated prostate-specific antigen levels appear—defined as 3.0 nanograms per milliliter or higher for men aged 45 to 69, and 6.5 nanograms per milliliter or higher for men aged 70 to 74—clinicians should repeat the blood test between two weeks and three months later.
Some experts have expressed caution regarding the updated directives. Alex Krist, a professor of family medicine at Virginia Commonwealth University who helped draft separate 2018 guidelines for the United States Preventive Services Task Force, warned that the recommendations might prompt routine, unnuanced testing. "The way that most doctors will put it into practice is that they will simply make this test for all," Krist told El Diario, noting that people worry about overdiagnosis and overtreatment.
Treatments such as radical prostatectomy, radiation therapy, and surgery can cause complications including urinary incontinence, erectile dysfunction, and bowel trouble. To mitigate these risks, the revised framework incorporates modern diagnostic safeguards, such as utilizing multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging before proceeding to a tissue biopsy, and employing active surveillance rather than immediate intervention for low-risk disease.
