UPDATE, AUGUST 29:  In the August 29 issue of the Journal, Cancer, the American Cancer Society changed its recommendation about prostate cancer screening, saying that “Because the current evidence about the value of testing for early prostate cancer detection is insufficient to recommend that average-risk men undergo regular screening, the ACS recommendations emphasize shared-decision making.” The ACS goes on to say that PSA testing should be “offered” to men beginning at age 50, but not “recommended” to them. Instead doctors should discuss the “potential benefits, limitations and harms associated with testing” and then let the patient decide. (See post below on prostate cancer and Dartmouth’s "shared decision-making progrm." ) Finally, in the August 29 issue of Cancer, the ACS says that its prostate cancer advisory committee considers it “inappropriate” for doctors either to  “recommend” PSA testing or to “discourage PSA

testing.”  In other words, the ACS seems to acknowledging that we just don’t know whether early detection and treatment does any good.