Fresh row over prostate screening
BMJ 2003; 326 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.326.7389.605 (Published 15 March 2003) Cite this as: BMJ 2003;326:605- Simon Chapman, professor of public health (simonc@health.usyd.edu.au)
- University of Sydney, Australia
Professor's admission challenges Australia's reverence for medical tests
In 2001 Michael Wilkes and Gavin Yamey, then editors of the Western Journal of Medicine, argued in the San Francisco Chronicle that there was no good evidence to screen healthy men for prostate cancer. Their article provoked an enormous backlash and they were subject to some particularly vicious lobbying and character assassination. They were said to be promoting “geriatricide,” and efforts were made to have them sacked (BMJ 2002;324:431).
In Australia in recent weeks, it has been the turn of Professor Alan Coates, chief executive of the Cancer Council Australia, the …
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