In the Aug. 5 issue of Annals of Internal Medicine, a report on men over 74 was published. It appears that prostate cancer screenings for men older than 74 is to be ceased.

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), added to its 2002 report, that more evidence is needed to determine if men under 75 could benefit from screening.

Nevertheless treating men older than 65 of prostate cancer did not improve the survival rate. This argument is based on the fact that any potential harm from the test results would bring nothing good to the patient as it is more likely that he would die from another cause in the following ten years or so.

There is controversy about whether to treat prostate cancer, because the tumors are generally slowly progressing ones.

Prostate cancer is the second most common type of cancer among men after skin cancer.

Dr. Leon Seard, chief of urology at Orange Coast Memorial Cancer Center in Fountain Valley explained: "We know that prostate cancer is a slow-growing disease and years ago used to say that 70 might be the cutoff. Now that the population is aging and remaining healthy, we are extending that to 75." He doesn’t usually screen men over 75 unless they are African American, and thus have an increased risk of having aggressive tumors.

Prostate screening requires a simple blood test to check for prostate-specific antigen, or PSA. Measurement of PSA in the blood can detect prostate cancer before symptoms develop.

Some abnormal PSA levels may require prostate biopsy to see if cancer is actually present. And a man over 74 years old doesn’t necessarily have to follow this unpleasant procedure. At the same time, aggressive treatment of prostate cancer can greatly reduce a patient’s quality of life, resulting in complications like impotency and depression.