Diagnostic Center for Disease: Prostate Biopsy Spreads Prostate Ca...( SARASOTA Fla. Feb. 19 /- Breaking...),Health

SARASOTA, Fla., Feb. 19 /PRNewswire/ -- Breaking news from the Diagnostic Center for Disease(TM) in Sarasota, Florida, identifies a previously underestimated risk that routine prostate biopsy performed to evaluate for prostate cancer spreads cancer cells and may be the reason that men have a recurrence of disease many years after the prostate was removed successfully with clear surgical margins. Traditionally, an ultrasound and prostate biopsy is commonly recommended and performed by Urologists when a patient presents with a prostate specific antigen (PSA) of 2.5 ng/ml or above. Men have been told for years that the procedure is safe and the only way to diagnose prostate cancer. While this paradigm represents the current standard, the system exposes far too many men to needless biopsies; as the number one reason PSA rises is prostatitis, not prostate cancer. Still other men may have a small cancer that is missed based on the inability of this standard procedure to target a suspected lesion in question (sampling error). Regardless of the rationale for a biopsy, all men suffer the potential risk for bleeding, scarring, infection or sepsis and needless intrusion that has reportedly resulted in impotency and/or incontinence in some patients. A more important issue that is often not discussed between physician and patient involves the possibility of "needle tracking", the very real possibility of spreading cancer cells beyond the prostate when a biopsy is performed. An extensive review of the literature confirms that once a needle penetrates the capsule of an organ, a phenomenon called "needle tracking" takes place. When the needle is withdrawn from the targeted organ, the chance of spreading cancer cells (when encountered) establishes itself, and every puncture of the prostate adds to this risk. Despite the significance of this risk to the patient, physicians generally fail to acknowledge a process that allows cells to lie dormant or incubate for up to 10 years o
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