THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF PENNSYLVANIA

HOUSE RESOLUTION

INTRODUCED BY BOBACK, BEAR, CALTAGIRONE, COHEN, D. COSTA, DALEY, EVERETT, GEORGE, GINGRICH, HARHART, HARKINS, HEFFLEY, HESS, HORNAMAN, KULA, MAHONEY, MAJOR, MANN, MARSICO, MILLARD, MURT, O'NEILL, PASHINSKI, PICKETT, READSHAW, ROCK, SAINATO, STERN, STEVENSON, TOOHIL, VEREB, VULAKOVICH, YOUNGBLOOD, DeLUCA, GIBBONS, GILLESPIE, BRADFORD AND MYERS, DECEMBER 14, 2011

AS REPORTED FROM COMMITTEE ON HEALTH, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, AS AMENDED, APRIL 30, 2012   

A RESOLUTION

Memorializing the Congress of the United States in its health

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care reform decisions to apply the American Cancer Society's

guidelines for prostate cancer screening to seek the

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withdrawal of the United States Preventive Services Task

Force recommendation against prostate-specific antigen-based

screening for prostate cancer for men in all age groups.

WHEREAS, The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF)

acknowledges that prostate cancer is the most commonly diagnosed

nonskin non-skin cancer in men in the United States, with a

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lifetime risk of diagnosis currently estimated at 15.9%; and

WHEREAS, Prostate cancer can often be found early by testing

the amount of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) through a blood

test; and

WHEREAS, There are limits to the PSA test, which is not 100%

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accurate; and

WHEREAS, Because of an elevated PSA level, some men may be

diagnosed with a prostate cancer that would never have led to

their death or even caused any symptoms; and

WHEREAS, Treatments for prostate cancer can have side effects

that may seriously affect a man's quality of life; and

WHEREAS, The USPSTF recommends against PSA-based screening

for prostate cancer; and

WHEREAS, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

reports that prostate cancer is the most common cancer among

American men and is the second-leading cause of cancer death

among American men, behind only lung cancer; and

WHEREAS, The National Cancer Institute estimates that

approximately 240,890 new cases of prostate cancer will be were 

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diagnosed and approximately 33,720 men will die died of prostate

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cancer in 2011 in the United States; and

WHEREAS, The Pennsylvania Department of Health reports that

in 2008, 10,098 men were diagnosed with prostate cancer, the

largest number of all cancer cases diagnosed in men in

Pennsylvania (26.5%), which was responsible for the deaths of

1,451 men; and

WHEREAS, The goal of screening for prostate cancer is to find

it early so that it can be treated more effectively; and

WHEREAS, The National Cancer Institute reports that prostate

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cancer incident rates rose in the late 1980s when screening with

the PSA came into wide use; and

WHEREAS, Since the early 1990s, the incidence of prostate

cancer and deaths from prostate cancer have been declining; and

WHEREAS, In October 2011, the USPSTF issued a recommendation

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against PSA screening for prostate cancer for men in all age

groups because it concluded that there is moderate or high

certainty that the service has no net benefit or that the harms

outweigh the benefits; and

WHEREAS, The USPSTF states that the October 2011

recommendation applies to men in the United States who do not

have symptoms of prostate cancer, even though by the time a man

experiences symptoms of prostate cancer, the cancer is generally

too advanced to cure; and

WHEREAS, The USPSTF states that its new recommendation

against screening applies regardless of race, even though the

USPSTF acknowledges that African-American men have a

substantially higher prostate cancer incidence rate than white

men and more than twice the prostate cancer mortality rate of

white men; and

WHEREAS, At the time the USPSTF issued its recommendation in

October 2011, the most recently updated study, the Göteborg

Randomized Population-based Prostate Cancer Screening Trial, had

found that, with screening, deaths from prostate cancer dropped

44% over a 14-year period, compared with men who did not undergo

screening and that prostate cancer screening efficiency was

similar to other cancers; and

WHEREAS, A study published in the New England Journal of

Medicine in March 2012 entitled "Prostate-Cancer Mortality at 11

Years of Follow-Up" revealed that PSA screening was shown to

reduce the mortality of prostate cancer by 29%; and

WHEREAS, The Prostate Cancer Foundation supports continued

routine PSA screening of informed patients; and

WHEREAS, The American Urological Association strongly opposes

the recommendations of the USPSTF, supports the use of PSA

screening and urges men to speak with their physicians about the

value of prostate cancer testing; and

WHEREAS, The American Cancer Society recommends that men

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should have a discussion with their health care providers in

order to make an informed decision about whether to be screened

for prostate cancer; therefore be it

RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives memorialize the

Congress of the United States in its health care reform

decisions to apply the American Cancer Society's guidelines for

prostate cancer, which specify that the discussion between a man

and his health care provider regarding prostate cancer screening

should take place between the ages of 40 and 50 based on the

individual's level of risk and family history of prostate

cancer.

WHEREAS, The USPSTF recommendation against screening puts

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into harm's way men who are most at risk: the underinsured,

those who live in areas where health care is not readily

available, those who have a family history of prostate cancer

and African-American men; therefore be it

RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives memorialize the

Congress of the United States to seek the withdrawal of the U.S.

Preventive Services Task Force recommendation against PSA

screening for men in all age groups.