As Reported by the Senate Health, Human Services and Aging Committee
129th General Assembly
Regular Session
2011-2012
S. C. R. No. 33
Senator Burke
Cosponsors: Senators Turner, Brown, Balderson, Peterson
A CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
To memorialize the Congress of the United States to
seek the 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.
BE IT RESOLVED BY THE SENATE OF THE STATE OF OHIO
(THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES CONCURRING):
WHEREAS, The United States Preventive Services Task Force
(USPSTF) is an independent panel of nonfederal experts in
prevention and evidence-based medicine that is composed of primary
care physicians; and
WHEREAS, The USPSTF members are appointed by the United
States Department of Health and Human Services to conduct
scientific evidence reviews of a broad range of clinical health
care preventive services and develop recommendations for primary
care clinicians and health systems; and
WHEREAS, The USPSTF acknowledges that prostate cancer is the
most commonly diagnosed nonskin cancer in men in the United
States, with one in six American men being diagnosed with prostate
cancer in his lifetime; and
WHEREAS, Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of
cancer-related deaths in men in the United States; and
WHEREAS, The American Cancer Society estimates that
approximately 241,740 men in the United States will be diagnosed
with prostate cancer and 28,170 men will die from the disease in
2012; and
WHEREAS, In Ohio alone, there are approximately 7,961 newly
diagnosed cases of prostate cancer and 1,232 deaths from the
disease on an annual basis; and
WHEREAS, In 2008, the USPSTF recommended against
prostate-specific antigen-based screening for prostate cancer for
men ages 75 and older; and
WHEREAS, In October 2011, the USPSTF issued a new
recommendation against prostate-specific antigen-based 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 Caucasian men and more
than twice the prostate cancer mortality rate of Caucasian men;
and
WHEREAS, The USPSTF issued this recent recommendation without
having a urologist or oncologist, two types of physicians who
specialize in diagnosing and treating patients with prostate
cancer, on the task force; and
WHEREAS, The USPSTF's 2011 recommendation regarding prostate
cancer screening follows its recommendation in November 2009
against routine mammograms for women ages 40 to 49 and against
teaching women to do breast self-examinations, which Congress
rejected after public outcry; and
WHEREAS, The most recently updated study, the Goteborg
Randomized Population-based Prostate Cancer Screening Trial, found
that with screening, deaths from prostate cancer dropped 44 per
cent 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, The USPSTF recommendation against screening puts
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, who have a higher incidence of and higher
mortality rate from prostate cancer than Caucasian men; therefore
be it
RESOLVED, That we, the members of the 129th General Assembly
of the State of Ohio, in adopting this resolution, respectfully
memorialize the Congress of the United States to seek the
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; and be it further
RESOLVED, That the Clerk of the Senate transmit duly
authenticated copies of this resolution to each member of the Ohio
Congressional delegation.
