一些專家不主張定期做前列腺癌檢查

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.美國政府的一個專家組星期一建議身體健康的男子不要定期做前列腺癌檢查。目前，數百萬美國男子每年定期做這項檢查。

爲美國衛生機構官員提供諮詢的預防疾病服務工作組說，對身體健康的男子而言，一種叫做PSA的簡單驗血可能弊大於利。

這個工作組的專家說，PSA檢查不能區分非致命與快速發展爲致命癌症的前列腺小腫瘤，因此很多男子接受不必要的癌治療，從而導致性功能障礙或是尿失禁的毛病。

然而，一些美國泌尿學專家對這個工作組的建議提出強烈質疑，認爲很多男子可能由於不做PSA檢查而死於疼痛的前列腺癌。

在美國，每年有大約三萬男子死於前列腺癌。

許多50歲和年過50的男子患前列腺癌。但前列腺癌通常發展緩慢，很多人都不知道知自己患前列腺癌，而且通常是死於其他病症。