A lot is being discussed on if men should get their PSA or prostate-specific antigen test when they are over 50 years of age. PSA tests find out prostate cancer.

New draft recommendations from the U. S. Preventive Services Task Force stated that it is not needed. It was stated by the task force that PSA rather than doing any good, is harmful.

But Toronto doctors have another story and PSA test is taken as a major weapon against prostate cancer, though imperfect as it may be.

Dr. Robert Nam, head of genital-urinary cancers at Sunnybrook Hospital's Odette Cancer Centre, said, "The task force had half a good point. While it's correct that the PSA over diagnoses cancers that don't need to be treated, it also picks up the lethal aggressive ones. When those are treated early, survival improves."

He said that until there is no test that is better than this, it is better to find aggressive forms and others also by the PSA test.

Prostate cancer is something that surgical oncologist Neil Fleshner specializes in at Princess Margaret Hospital. He thinks that when it comes to Canada, these recommendations are not applicable.