Plate Nº 19 · recorded November 13, 2026
Health & Medicine ResearchReported finding
American Cancer Society Now Urges Routine PSA Screening for Men 50 to 69
The American Cancer Society now advises men 50-69 to get PSA blood tests every two years, with high-risk men starting yearly checks at 45, reversing its cautious 2010 stance.
By Priya Raman3 min read623 words
In brief
- The American Cancer Society released the updated guideline on Thursday, urging routine PSA screening for middle-aged men.
- Average-risk men should get a PSA blood test every two years from ages 50 to 69; high-risk men, including Black men, should start yearly checks at 45.
- The guideline discourages screening for men 80 and older or anyone not expected to live another 10 years.
- The society estimates more than 333,000 U.S. men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2026, with about 36,000 deaths.
- Since 2010, the society had recommended only that men discuss PSA testing with their doctors.
Middle-aged men should get regular prostate cancer screening, the American Cancer Society declared Thursday, in a major reversal of the cautious stance the organization has held for more than a decade.
The new guideline, released Thursday, advises men at average risk of prostate cancer to take a simple blood test every two years between the ages of 50 and 69. The test measures PSA, or prostate-specific antigen, a protein produced by both normal and cancerous prostate cells.
Men at high risk face a stricter schedule. That group includes Black men and those with a strong family history of the disease. They should begin yearly PSA checks at age 45, five years earlier than their average-risk peers.
Why did the guidance change?
Since 2010, the American Cancer Society had recommended only that men at average risk talk with their doctors about whether to get regular PSA tests. Routine screening was not encouraged. The reasoning: a high PSA level might signal a tumor, but it could just as easily come from a benign enlarged prostate, or even reflect a temporary spike caused by vigorous exercise.
Widespread PSA testing in earlier decades was blamed for real harm. Doctors overtreated slow-growing tumors that might never have threatened a man's life, and men who turned out not to have cancer at all endured unnecessary follow-up testing.
Thursday's update marks a shift in that thinking. According to the cancer society, the new advice follows advances in understanding the benefits of PSA testing and, crucially, in how to reduce its potential harms. Two safeguards now anchor the process:
- Repeating a PSA test to confirm that a level is genuinely high before taking further action
- Adding an MRI scan (magnetic resonance imaging, a detailed imaging technique) to help identify which men actually need a biopsy, the tissue-sampling procedure used to confirm cancer
In other words, the test itself has not changed. The pathway that follows an elevated result has become more careful, which lowers the odds of needless biopsies and unnecessary treatment.
How long should screening continue?
The guideline draws clear boundaries at older ages. Starting at 70, men should discuss with their doctors whether continuing routine PSA checks remains beneficial for them.
The advice turns firmly against screening in two groups: men aged 80 and older, and men of any age whose other health problems mean they are not expected to live another 10 years. For them, the potential harms of detecting a slow-growing cancer outweigh any benefit.
How common is prostate cancer?
Prostate cancer ranks among the most common cancers in men. The American Cancer Society estimates that more than 333,000 men in the United States will be diagnosed with the disease in 2026, and about 36,000 will die of it.
Those figures give the new guideline its urgency. If confirmed elevated PSA levels can be caught early and verified carefully, the cancer society's reasoning goes, more tumors can be found at a treatable stage without repeating the overtreatment mistakes of the past.
What should men do now?
The practical first step is straightforward. Men approaching 50, or 45 for those at higher risk, should raise the question of PSA screening at their next doctor's visit. The test itself is a routine blood draw.
The guideline is an advisory, not a mandate, and individual health histories vary. A conversation with a physician remains the deciding factor, particularly for men past 70 weighing whether to continue.
For a recommendation that has shifted once already since 2010, the underlying message now stands on firmer ground: screening works best when paired with the tools to interpret it correctly.
A blood test, taken on schedule, is the place to begin.
via wbrz.com (Source)
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Senior reporter covering people, launches and day-to-day practice in general science news at SciBeat.
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