As the old saying goes, 2 things cannot be avoided: death and taxes. Attorneys representing plaintiffs/health care consumers believe medical malpractice can be avoided, and the quality of health care has improved over the decades (in part in response to litigation).
Urine test may help doctors diagnose prostate cancer
A recent study from the University of Michigan published in the journal Science Translational Medicine suggests that the diagnosis of prostate cancer may be improved by including a urine test to the traditional blood test commonly known as a PSA. Currently, if the PSA is elevated additional tests including ultrasound guided biopsy are used to diagnose prostate cancer. Unfortunately, the PSA can be elevated for other reasons besides prostate cancer (like infection) and less than half of men who have a biopsy are found to have prostate cancer so the doctors at U of M used a urine test which looked for a genetic mutation and another marker called PSA3 to see if they could more accurately predict which men actually had prostate cancer or were at higher risk for a more aggressive type of prostate cancer.
