Lay campaigners for prostate screening are funded by industry

Abstract

A lay men's group which campaigns for men to take the prostate specific antigen screening test for prostate cancer gets 95% of its funding from the pharmaceutical industry, its chief execu-tive officer admitted last week. The group, called Us Too! International, also led the attack on two doctors who wrote articles in the San Francisco Chronicle (2002 Jan 18;sect A:29) and the BMJ (2002;324:431) arguing that routine screening for prostate cancer was not supported by the evidence. Us Too! International claims to be the world's largest “grassroots, independent, patient-focused charitable organisation” and has 380 chapters in nine countries, including the United States, Canada, Australia, and the United Kingdom. The group emphasises its independence, saying …