During a segment on the April 28 “The Richard Beene Show,” Dr. Raj Patel discusses the dangers of prostate cancer, and when is the best time to get tested.

Patel said the testing and treatments standards have begun to change in the battle against prostate cancer, including caring for elderly men diagnosed with the disease.

“The thing is that so far the recommendations that men turned 50 you screened with Prostate-specific antigen blood test, which is called PSA, which largely replaced a rectal exam, because it was not very productive or reliable,” Patel said.

The debate about prostate screening has raged since 2012 when a task force recommended against screening of all healthy men because the harm outweighed the benefit. Patel said that is especially true in men over the age of 70 who were faced with complications from results of screening. There is no unanimous recommendation about prostate screening. 

“They are saying don’t check at all,” Patel said. “There are some exceptions.”