Screening PSAs

Did you know?

• According to the American Cancer Society (ACS), prostate cancer is the most common cancer in American men after skin cancer.
• For the year 2025, the ACS estimates that in the U.S. 313,780 new cases of prostate cancer will be diagnosed, and that 35,770 men will die from this disease.
• ‍Risk factors for this disease include age, being African-American, and having a family history of prostate cancer.

Why should I care?

• The PSA test is a blood test that detects a substance made by the prostate called prostate-specific antigen. If the PSA reading is elevated, this can be a sign of cancer. However, PSA levels can be elevated due to other causes.
• During the PSA era–when there has been an emphasis on early detection–there has been over a 50% reduction in the age-adjusted U.S. death rate from prostate cancer for all races (from 1994-2017).
• During the COVID-19 pandemic, the decline in cancer screenings has raised concerns of delayed diagnoses. Research published in JAMA Oncology found a substantial disruption to cancer diagnoses in the U.S. during the first 10 months of the COVID-19 pandemic, with prostate cancer accounting for the largest number of potentially missed cases (22,950).
• Our data is showing that among Medicare Fee-for-Service beneficiaries, screening PSAs in our national footprint declined 63% from January to April 2020. Thereafter, procedure volumes did increase but then exhibited a general downward trend as the COVID-19 period continued. As of November 2024, there were a total of 124,000 procedures performed that month. That compared to 166,768 in January 2020.

What should I do?

• At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, many people stopped getting their regular cancer screenings. The ACS advises that people whose cancer screening schedule was disrupted talk to their healthcare providers about getting back on schedule.