To the Editor:

I want to compliment you and Dr. Brantley Thrasher for your prostate cancer articles. This was a very good summary and left no confusion on the need for PSA testing. One point I thought was missing is the need for continual testing over time to detect change, not just one test and forget it.

I am a cancer survivor, at least seven years, thanks to PSA tests, biopsy, and surgery, all done after age 70.

AARP magazine and Parade magazine have had completely opposite, confusing, articles that to me were stupid. Sandra G. Boodman, in the Jan./Feb. 2010 AARP issue, quoted H. Gilbert Welch, professor at Dartmouth Institute of Health Policy and Clinical Practice, recommending against PSA testing because only one will die to 50 treated unnecessarily. I do not choose to voluntarily be that one. It would be interesting to see a list of doctors also taking the risk.

These articles also implied that knowledge is a bad thing because you have to make decisions as a result. With this approach, I don't know how you would make any progress in medical research.

I enjoy The Best Times.

—Tom Laisure, Merriam