Public comment period now open!
It’s finally here… members of the Australian public who wish to comment on the review of PSA testing guidelines can now do so.
You may have some questions about this, so we have a Q&A below, as well as links to helpful information.
Take me there now!
What are the Guidelines?
The “2016 Clinical Practice Guidelines for Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) Testing and Early Management of Test-detected Prostate Cancer” are commonly known as the 2016 Guidelines.
As their name suggests, they are designed for “clinical practice” – in other words, your doctor (GP) is meant to use them as a guide when men visit their practice.
The Guidelines set out the “accepted” medical standards for giving men a PSA test. They were last updated in 2014-2015, so this review is our big chance to make them fit-for-purpose in 2024.
The Guidelines tell GPs when they “should” test a man using the PSA blood test and what should happen when the results come back.
What is PSA & what is a PSA test?
PSA stands for Prostate Specific Antigen. A PSA test is a simple blood test to find out what levels of PSA are floating around in a man’s blood.
It sounds straightforward, but it isn’t. For a full explanation, you can check out our article – Why is prostate cancer testing so confusing?
Why are the Guidelines important?
The Guidelines tell your GP if you are eligible for a PSA test or not. They also tell your GP what to do next when your test results come in.
The 2016 Guidelines cover such things as:-
- What age should a man be to get tested?
- How often should a man be tested?
- What PSA level is “safe”?
- When should a man be referred for further testing?
You might be really careful to look after yourself and your health, but your GP needs to be on the same page.
Some men find that their GP refuses to test them! Other men don’t even know that they need to be tested even if they HAVE NO SYMPTOMS.
The 2016 Guidelines badly need updating. Men can die from prostate cancer, or they can have their cancer detected early enough to have more choice about treatments.
Men who get prostate cancer and don’t know that they have it until it has metastasised (moved out of the prostate gland into bones or lymph nodes) can suffer from invasive treatments for many years.
This public comment opportunity to review the Guidelines is our big chance to get the testing system right – to make it a better fit for Australian men now and into the future.
Why should they matter to me or my family & friends?
Prostate cancer affects men and their loved ones. If it’s caught early enough, men have more choices about which treatment they can undergo.
We in the general public know more about breast cancer, for example, than we do about prostate cancer. This needs to change. One way to make that change is to improve the PSA Testing Guidelines.
You only have one body and you need to take good care of it. Help yourself and your fellow Australian men to make it easier to stay “prostate safe”.
More info about PSA testing & the 2016 Guidelines review
The Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia website has a page where you can download different versions of the 2016 Guidelines (depending on how much detail you want to read). Click here to visit that PCFA website page.
PCFA has also issued a Media Release about the review process – click here to visit that page.