The PSA Test for Prostate Cancer: Risk Constructs Governance?

Abstract

The PSA test is a technology developed in the 1980s, first used to assist in the monitoring of, and subsequently also in the detection of prostate cancer. It is not on its own a diagnostic test. Regulatory regimes classify it as an in vitro medical device. It is a blood test. Following consultation and ordering of the test from a medical professional, analysis conventionally is conducted in a pathology laboratory. ‘Home test’ kits can, however, be purchased in the burgeoning do-it-yourself healthcare marketplace. The prostate is a small gland found only in men which is important to sexual and reproductive functioning, having a role in liquefying sperm at the time of ejaculation. The result of testing indicates the possible presence of a protein unique to the prostate and associated at above-normal levels with potential pathology.

A new generation of tests for cancer could do more harm than good by increasingly diagnosing tumours which may not pose an immediate health risk, according to a leading cancer specialist.

(Guardian, 3 April 2007)

Use of the PSA test is swamping urology and radiotherapy services, the Government’s cancer tsar has admitted.

(UK newspaper report, 2006)