The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends no prostate cancer screening for healthy men.The scientific findings behind this recommendation are scheduled to be published next week by the Annals of Internal Medicine.

PSA screening results in small or no reduction in death from prostate cancer but is associated with harm, including biopsies, other tests and treatments, some of which may be unnecessary.
Virginia Moyer, who chairs the task force commented, "This test cannot tell the difference between cancers that will and will not affect a man during his natural lifetime," Moyer told The New York Times Thursday. "We need to find one that does."

The new report is the latest in a long-running controversy over the value of PSA screening. Advocates say the test, when given regularly to men age 50 and over, facilitates the discovery of the cancer at an early stage, improving the chances of successful treatment. Critics say the test has a significant rate of false positives -- apparent detection of cancer that isn't confirmed with further tests -- or that it identifies so-called indolent tumors that are ultimately of little health consequence.
Because such interventions can lead to infections, impotence and incontinence, critics say the risks of testing often outweigh the benefit.