一些专家不主张定期做前列腺癌检查

A U.S. government panel Monday recommended against healthy men getting a routine test for prostate cancer -- an annual ritual for millions of men.

The Preventative Services Task Force, which advises U.S. health officials, says the simple blood test called a PSA may do more harm than good in healthy men.

The advisors say the test cannot distinguish tiny tumors that are not fatal from fast-growing ones that develop into cancer. They say this results in many men getting unneeded treatment for cancer, leaving them impotent or incontinent.

Some U.S. urologists strongly dispute the panel\'s recommendation, saying many men could suffer and die a painful death without the tests.

Prostate cancer kills about 30,000 American men a year.

Many men 50 years and older come down with prostate cancer. But the disease often develops so slowly that many victims never know they have it and often die from causes other than prostate cancer.

为美国卫生机构官员提供咨询的预防疾病服务工作组说，对身体健康的男子而言，一种叫做PSA的简单验血可能弊大于利。

这个工作组的专家说，PSA检查不能区分非致命与快速发展为致命癌症的前列腺小肿瘤，因此很多男子接受不必要的癌治疗，从而导致性功能障碍或是尿失禁的毛病。

然而，一些美国泌尿学专家对这个工作组的建议提出强烈质疑，认为很多男子可能由于不做PSA检查而死于疼痛的前列腺癌。

在美国，每年有大约三万男子死于前列腺癌。

许多50岁和年过50的男子患前列腺癌。但前列腺癌通常发展缓慢，很多人都不知道知自己患前列腺癌，而且通常是死于其他病症。