Assignment 2 PSA test Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Assignment 2 PSA test - Essay Example Prostate-specific antigen exists in small amounts in the serum of people with fit prostates but is frequently elevated in the existence of prostate cancer or other prostate turmoil. Though serum, prostate-specific antigen, measurement is frequently applied in prostate cancer screening. Its cost is controversial (Craig 23). The Prostate Cancer Research Foundation of Canada (PCRFC) does not advocate for its regular use by healthy men. The PCRFC found that PSA-based prostate cancer screening show small or missing reductions in prostate-cancer–specific deaths, and is linked to overtreatment and over diagnosis. This paper will discuss prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test in Canada and determine the level of the test’s use in prostate cancer screening. It will discuss whether the procedure is cost effective and estimate how much money is wasted in the procedure. Finally, it will discuss alternative procedures that are cost effective to the consumers. The prostate-specific antigen test determines the blood level of PSA, enzyme formed by the prostate. Prostate-specific antigen is a serine protease comparable to kallikrein-3. Its function is to liquefy gelatinous semen once ejaculation is carried out, permitting spermatozoa to steer through the uterine cervix. Prostate-specific antigen testing is contentious and may bring unnecessary and damaging effects in some patients. Ever since PSA screening was initiated in Canada, more than a million men in the country have been diagnosed and cured of prostate cancer (Pickles 4). It has been projected that the vast majority, more than 90% of men, get no benefit from this diagnosis. Even though a person makes a positive assumption regarding the advantage of screening, less than 10% of men getting a positive diagnosis receive any benefit at all from it. Positive assumption refers to the entire decline in prostate cancer deaths witnessed since the opening of PSA testing. Other studies,