If there was ever evidence that doctors may, or may not, know what they are talking about it comes today in the startling disagreement between Dr. Neil Bell, chair of the Canada Prostate Cancer Guideline Task Force and Dr. Neil Fleshner, who studies and treats prostate cancer at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre in Toronto. As the CBC story linked reveals these two eminent men have quite opposite opinions about the value of the so-called PSA test for detecting prostate cancer. Doctors will disagree of course but the clinical nature of this question seems so apparent that it makes one wonder. Dr. Bell’s task force has recommended categorically that the PSA be scrapped because “it can do more harm than good.” Dr. Fleshner, on the other hand, says the test “absolutely” detects cancers early and saves lives. CBC
