Book Reaction: Silence
Dr. Topol: Have you suffered any repercussions from the book? Have there been any lawsuits or any retaliatory-type tactics?
Dr. Ablin: No. In fact, there has been silence. Several articles have come out. I've had several interviews with the local papers.
Dr. Topol: You had a nice review in The Economist.[6] That's pretty widely read.
Dr. Ablin: That was the poorest review that we received, because it was anonymous, and whoever wrote it said that I made hyperbolic claims. Every single statement in this book is supported by a reference.
Dr. Topol: As you look back on the past 5 decades of PSA and what you have learned, do you think that it was a conspiracy, that it was intentional, or that it was unwittingly done trying to help men to try to prevent the sequelae of a horrible cancer? What do you really think?
Dr. Ablin: My opinion is that the driver of this, beyond the use of the PSA test as a harbinger of the recurrence of the disease, is money. There are some highly intelligent people in the industry. No one has ever refuted my 4 cruxes, so I believe that the use of the PSA test for screening asymptomatic men was strictly for money -- a lot of money. A company wanted to develop a blockbuster drug, some form of immunotherapy, which they talked about in the early days back in San Diego. Many people could see that this test couldn't do what it was purported to do.
I remember talking to a couple of CEOs at biotech companies a couple of years ago, and explaining to them why this test doesn't work. Their answer was, "Dick, this is very interesting, but nobody is going to be interested in your story." I asked why. They said, "Too many people are making too much money to stop this." This is why I wrote the book, and why it's so important that the average man and his family read it and have a better understanding of what's going on.
Dr. Topol: Thank you not only for writing the book, but for sharing your views. There is, obviously, another side to all this. I know we will hear from our Medscape audience -- not just urologists, but primary care physicians -- about their views, and there will be a lot of disparity and even polarization of views about the PSA and screening for prostate cancer. Nevertheless, we are very appreciative to you for what you have done over these years, and for taking the time to join me on Medscape One-on-One.
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Cite this: PSA Test Is Misused, Unreliable, Says the Antigen's Discoverer - Medscape - Aug 08, 2014.
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