Word: rectal
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...long hoped for a test that could pick up more of these cancers before they become inoperable. Now they may have got their wish. Researchers reported in last week's New England Journal of Medicine that a new method could potentially spot 20% to 30% more cancers than do rectal exams alone, the current means of early tumor detection...
...Rectal examinations have been the standard for early diagnosis for nearly a century. But this method, in which doctors probe the prostate gland manually, has not been very popular with patients or their doctors. In West Germany, where men over 40 can be tested for free, a recent study found that only 15% actually agreed to have it done. Physicians point out that the exams often fail to detect smaller cancers and those that originate on the front of the gland. The method is also subjective. One expert remarked that all he can tell his medical students is that...
...method is by no means foolproof. Catalona stresses that 21% of the men in his study with prostate cancer actually had "normal" PSA levels. Thus the test should be used only in combination with a rectal exam, he said, and even then some cancers will be missed...