Welcome  to  public  health  moment from  the  University  of  Minnesota. Should  any  man  absent  symptoms  ever  be  screened  for prostate  cancer  using the  prostate  specific  Antigen  or  PSA  test? No.  According  to  draft  guidelines recommended  by  the  US  Preventive  Services  Task  Force, public  comment  on  those  guidelines is  open  until  December  13. University  of  Minnesota  Professor  Tim  Church, who  has  conducted  clinical  trials  to measure  the  success  of  PSA  screenings, said  that  research  has  shown  that these  tests  have  resulted  in  more  harm  than  good. Not  only  is  there  cost  involved, inconvenience  and  the  pain  that might  be  involved  with  diagnostic  work  ups, but  some  considerable  numbers of  men  end  up  impotent  or  incontinent, and  with  chronic  pain  and  blood  in  their  urine due  to  effects  of  the  false  positive  screening  tests. The  draft  recommendations  do  not  specify whether  men  of  higher  risk  should  be  screened, but  Church  says  that  men  concerned  about prostate  cancer  should  consult  with  their  Dr.  Obviously, some  groups  need  to  be  more  concerned  than  others. It's  been  well  demonstrated  that  black  men,  for  example, have  much  higher  rates, not  only  of  prostate  cancer  incidents, but  also  of  prostate  cancer  death. In  addition,  men  who  have  had  a  history  of prostate  cancer  in  their  family  may also  be  at  higher  risk  for  prostate  cancer.