Prostate cancer and the PSA test: It's hard to understand risk

"“People love to be scared, and then to feel relieved. That’s what the PSA does,” he said.

Having a cancer diagnosis — even a false one — reinforces patients’ conviction that getting the test was the right thing to do, he said. What, after all, might have happened if I hadn’t found out?

The problem with such reasoning, Downs said, is that it’s impossible to know. "