Prostate Cancer Screening

www.anglophonie.fr
Prostate Cancer Screening
(MSNBC.com, 2012)
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www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032619/vp/47511452#47511452
Good evening, and we begin tonight with an enormous game-changer and how doctors and patients
should now approach prostate cancer. A government panel says doctors should no longer offer routine
PSA tests to healthy men because what happens next often means more harm than good.
We’ve all seen the public campaign to raise awareness for the PSA test. The test itself is an annual ritual
for a lot of men who wanna avoid prostate cancer or catch it early. Almost a quarter million American
men are diagnosed with it every year and over twenty-eight thousand die from it. But this new
recommendation clearly says the possible harm of treatment way outweighs the survival benefits of early
detection. It is big news; it was expected to cause an uproar and it already has (caused an uproar). We
begin here tonight with our chief science correspondent, Robert Bazelle.
Since the PSA blood test came out in 1986, it has become one of the most common cancer-screening tools
in America. But today the task force gave the test a grade of D, concluding (that) it does more harm than
good.
This has been one of the most gut-wrenching aspects of medicine that we deal with on a day-to-day basis.
Why not screen for the second-most-common cancer killer in men? The reason many experts say is that
prostate cancer is very different from most other cancers. In one form it can be a killer, but more
commonly it presents no threat to a man’s life, and doctors can’t tell the difference between the two
forms.
But when the PSA test, followed by a biopsy, finds cancer, doctors and their patients usually want
treatment, even if it comes with possibly serious side-effects.
The public perception of cancer is that cancer, all cancer is something that is potentially life-threatening
and when a patient hears the word “cancer,” the first thing that they want to do is to get rid of it.
Two recent large studies, one in the US and one in Europe, found either little or no survival benefit among
men getting regular PSA testing. But the risks of treatment can be huge. Five in one thousand men die
within a month from the complications of surgery. And at least twenty to thirty percent of men getting
treatments end up impotent or with urinary or bowel difficulties, or all three, and often permanently.
Well, we’ve got to do something with the pineapple sage.
With this information, some men, like Rou Harris, already have decided to stop having PSA tests.
I was getting caught up in the system of over-testing.
But others, like Bill Roth, will continue.
We’re keeping a close watch on PSA levels.
In a statement today, the American Urological Association, whose members treat prostrate cancer, called
the recommendations inappropriate and irresponsible, and said men should have the choice to be tested.
But patients do still have a choice whether they want the test. The panel only makes recommendations.
And increasingly doctors are telling men (that) if they are diagnosed with prostate cancer, it might not be
life-threatening, and they can safely wait to see if it progresses before they decide to have treatment.
But, Brian, that can involve a lot of anxiety.
As we said, this is a huge, potential game-changer in the world of health and science tonight. Robert
Bazelle starting us off, thank you.
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Vocabulary
01. screening
02. a game-changer
03. should no longer offer
04. means more harm than good
05. to raise awareness
06. who wanna (want to) avoid
07. to catch it early
08. to way outweigh
09. early detection
10. to cause an uproar
11. cancer-screening tools
12. the task force
13. a grade of “D”
14. gut-wrenching
15. on a day-to-day basis
16. different from most other cancers
17. side- effects
18. life-threatening
19. to get rid of it
20. no survival benefit
21. huge
22. five in one thousand men
23. end up
24. bowel
25. I was getting caught up
26. we’re keeping a close watch
27. increasingly
28. to safely wait
dépistage
un changeur de la donne (littéralement)
ne devraient plus proposer
peut faire plus de mal que de bien
sensibiliser
qui veulent éviter
le détecter tôt
contrebalancer de loin
détection précoce
provoquer un tollé de protestation, de tumulte
outils pour dépister le cancer
le comité
une note de “D” (deficiency) = ‘below average’
(en dessous de la moyenne) dans le système
américain
très émotionnel (qui « tord les tripes »)
quotidiennement
différent de la plupart des cancers
effets secondaires
qui ‘menace la vie’, mortel
s’en débarrasser
ne prolonge pas la vie (littéralement = aucun bénéfice
de survie)
énorme
cinq hommes sur mille
finissent
intestin
je devenais trop pris par
nous surveillons de près
de plus en plus
attendre sans danger (en sécurité)