A lot of studies make me scratch my head, but every now and then a real gem comes along that makes me wonder just what in the heck they were thinking.

Like the recent study that found that older men with early stage low- or moderate–grade prostate cancer are more likely to die of something other than the prostate cancer.

No kidding!

Any doctor worth his salt knows that prostate cancer is a slow-developing disease. Combine that with the fact that older people tend to get it, and of course they’re likely to die of something else first.

Unfortunately, the researchers made the wrong-headed conclusion that men diagnosed with prostate cancer were focusing only on their cancer, and neglecting other areas of their health.

They didn’t just miss the boat. They missed the entire ocean. Here’s the real question they should have been asking: Why do so many men rush out to get prostate cancer surgery?

In many cases, when you consider the age of the patient and how long it takes for the disease to develop, these surgeries make absolutely no sense at all. Remember, common side effects of prostate cancer surgery include incontinence and impotence.

One recent comprehensive study looked at hundreds of other studies to evaluate eight different forms of treatment – including surgery. You’ll never guess what they found.

None of those treatments, not even the surgery, proved to be better than doing nothing at all.

There’s no doubt that prostate cancer needs to be taken seriously. After all, it claimed nearly 30,000 lives last year. But at the same time, we also need to consider that nearly 2 million men alive today have been diagnosed with prostate cancer at some point in their lives. And the 10-year survival rate of the disease is above 90 percent.

Prostate cancer requires a rational, measured approach – and that should have been the message of this study.

Looks like this study found a few needles – but missed the whole haystack.

by Dr. Alan Inglis

If you’re over 75 years old and some doctor is still trying to give you a PSA screening for prostate cancer, get a second opinion – fast.

More research has emerged that seriously calls into question the value of this already- flawed test for older gentlemen. You might recall that last year the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force urged doctors to stop giving the PSA to older men.

That didn’t stop the practice, of course, even though the PSA has been a pretty lousy predictor of prostate cancer.

The overall mortality rate from prostate cancer has dropped only about 6 percent to 8 percent since PSA testing first began about 15 years ago. Meanwhile, the number of cancer diagnoses has more than doubled, resulting in a great deal of unnecessary treatment, cost, and suffering for many men.

The new research, conducted by the National Institutes of Health, looked at men over 75 and found that not one – let me repeat that, not one – died of prostate cancer if he had a PSA reading of under 3 nanograms per milliliter.

It’s not that they found the risk was low – they found the risk was zero.

For men with PSA readings higher than 3 nanograms per milliliter, the study authors concluded there might be some value to continued screening, as these men are in a higher risk group.

Exactly how high that risk is, I’m not sure. Study after study shows that most forms of prostate cancer are very slow growing, and men with prostate cancer are likely to die of something else first.

At any rate, two-thirds of men over 75 have PSA readings below 3 nanograms per milliliter, which means that, for the vast majority of older men, this testing craziness can finally end.

It’s about time.