Prostate-Cancer Screening

To screen or not to screen? When it comes to cancer, doctors say early detection is the best defense. But the picture is a little fuzzier when it comes to prostate cancer, which in many cases progresses slowly and may not require aggressive treatment. In March, a 10-year National Cancer Institute study involving more than 76,000 men seemed to make the case for watchful waiting. About half of the study volunteers were randomly assigned to the screening group, getting either a manual exam or a prostate-specific antigen test each year; the latter test measures blood levels of a protein associated with prostate cancer. The other study participants received no screening guidance and were left to decide on their own whether they would get a yearly test. At the seven-year mark, 50 men had died from prostate cancer in the screening group, and 44 had died in the usual-care group. In other words, screening and early detection did not lower the death rate from prostate cancer.

Based on this and other studies, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force said there was insufficient evidence to assess the balance of benefits and harms of prostate-cancer screening in men younger than age 75. The task force recommended against prostate-cancer screening in men 75 and older.

Internet: <www.time.com> (adapted).

Prostate-Cancer Screening

To screen or not to screen? When it comes to cancer, doctors say early detection is the best defense. But the picture is a little fuzzier when it comes to prostate cancer, which in many cases progresses slowly and may not require aggressive treatment. In March, a 10-year National Cancer Institute study involving more than 76,000 men seemed to make the case for watchful waiting. About half of the study volunteers were randomly assigned to the screening group, getting either a manual exam or a prostate-specific antigen test each year; the latter test measures blood levels of a protein associated with prostate cancer. The other study participants received no screening guidance and were left to decide on their own whether they would get a yearly test. At the seven-year mark, 50 men had died from prostate cancer in the screening group, and 44 had died in the usual-care group. In other words, screening and early detection did not lower the death rate from prostate cancer.

Based on this and other studies, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force said there was insufficient evidence to assess the balance of benefits and harms of prostate-cancer screening in men younger than age 75. The task force recommended against prostate-cancer screening in men 75 and older.

Internet: <www.time.com> (adapted).

Prostate-Cancer Screening

To screen or not to screen? When it comes to cancer, doctors say early detection is the best defense. But the picture is a little fuzzier when it comes to prostate cancer, which in many cases progresses slowly and may not require aggressive treatment. In March, a 10-year National Cancer Institute study involving more than 76,000 men seemed to make the case for watchful waiting. About half of the study volunteers were randomly assigned to the screening group, getting either a manual exam or a prostate-specific antigen test each year; the latter test measures blood levels of a protein associated with prostate cancer. The other study participants received no screening guidance and were left to decide on their own whether they would get a yearly test. At the seven-year mark, 50 men had died from prostate cancer in the screening group, and 44 had died in the usual-care group. In other words, screening and early detection did not lower the death rate from prostate cancer.

Based on this and other studies, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force said there was insufficient evidence to assess the balance of benefits and harms of prostate-cancer screening in men younger than age 75. The task force recommended against prostate-cancer screening in men 75 and older.

Internet: <www.time.com> (adapted).

Prostate-Cancer Screening

To screen or not to screen? When it comes to cancer, doctors say early detection is the best defense. But the picture is a little fuzzier when it comes to prostate cancer, which in many cases progresses slowly and may not require aggressive treatment. In March, a 10-year National Cancer Institute study involving more than 76,000 men seemed to make the case for watchful waiting. About half of the study volunteers were randomly assigned to the screening group, getting either a manual exam or a prostate-specific antigen test each year; the latter test measures blood levels of a protein associated with prostate cancer. The other study participants received no screening guidance and were left to decide on their own whether they would get a yearly test. At the seven-year mark, 50 men had died from prostate cancer in the screening group, and 44 had died in the usual-care group. In other words, screening and early detection did not lower the death rate from prostate cancer.

Based on this and other studies, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force said there was insufficient evidence to assess the balance of benefits and harms of prostate-cancer screening in men younger than age 75. The task force recommended against prostate-cancer screening in men 75 and older.

Internet: <www.time.com> (adapted).

Prostate-Cancer Screening

To screen or not to screen? When it comes to cancer, doctors say early detection is the best defense. But the picture is a little fuzzier when it comes to prostate cancer, which in many cases progresses slowly and may not require aggressive treatment. In March, a 10-year National Cancer Institute study involving more than 76,000 men seemed to make the case for watchful waiting. About half of the study volunteers were randomly assigned to the screening group, getting either a manual exam or a prostate-specific antigen test each year; the latter test measures blood levels of a protein associated with prostate cancer. The other study participants received no screening guidance and were left to decide on their own whether they would get a yearly test. At the seven-year mark, 50 men had died from prostate cancer in the screening group, and 44 had died in the usual-care group. In other words, screening and early detection did not lower the death rate from prostate cancer.

Based on this and other studies, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force said there was insufficient evidence to assess the balance of benefits and harms of prostate-cancer screening in men younger than age 75. The task force recommended against prostate-cancer screening in men 75 and older.

Internet: <www.time.com> (adapted).

Escrevi uma carta aos meus concidadãos, pedindo-lhes que me dissessem francamente o que consideravam que fosse política, e dispensando-os de citar Aristóteles, Maquiavelli, Spencer, Comte. (...)

Não tardou que o correio começasse a entregar-me as respostas; e, como eu não pagava o porte, reconheci que há neste mundo uma infinidade de filhos de Deus ou do diabo que os carregue, que estão à espreita de um simples pretexto para comunicar as suas ideias, ainda à custa dos vinténs magros.

Não publico todas as definições recebidas, porque a vida é curta, vita brevis. Faço, porém, uma escolha rigorosa, e dou algumas das principais. (...) Uma das cartas dizia simplesmente que a política é tirar o chapéu às pessoas mais velhas. Outra afirmava que a política é a obrigação de não meter o dedo no nariz. Outra, que é, estando à mesa, não enxugar os beiços no guardanapo da vizinha, nem na ponta da toalha. Um secretário de club dançante jura que a política é dar excelência às moças, e não lhes pôr alcunhas. Segundo um morador da Tijuca, a política é agradecer com um sorriso animador ao amigo que nos paga a passagem.

Muitas cartas são tão longas e difusas, que quase se não pode extratar nada. Citarei dessas a de um barbeiro, que define a política como a arte de lhe pagarem as barbas, e a de um boticário para quem a verdadeira política é não comprar nada na botica da esquina. Um sectário de Comte (viver às claras) afirma que a política é berrar nos bonds, quer se trate dos negócios da gente, quer dos estranhos.

Não entendi algumas cartas. A letra de outras é ilegível. Outras repetem-se. Cinco ou seis dão, como suas, opiniões achadas nos livros.

Note-se que, em todo esse montão de cartas, não há uma só de deputado ou senador, contudo escrevi a todos eles pedindo uma definição.

Machado de Assis. Balas de estalo. In: Obra completa, vol. 3, Rio de Janeiro: Aguilar, 1973, p. 468-9 (com adaptações).