Dr. Otis Brawley of Johns Hopkins shares his insight about cancer screening, focusing on prostate cancer. Dr. Brawley explains that while prostate cancer is common and serious, evidence supporting routine PSA screening is limited and inconsistent, leading major organizations to recommend shared decision-making between doctors and patients rather than universal screening. Men of Northwestern Sub-Saharan African ancestry have higher risk, but outcomes are equal across groups when high-quality care is provided, highlighting that disparities stem mainly from access to care, not biology. He emphasizes the importance of individualized screening decisions, treatment at strong medical centers, and patient engagement, and briefly describes Johns Hopkins’ MAPS peer-support program for cancer patients.
EP 1,261B - Prostate Cancer Rates on the Rise
Dr. Otis Brawley
Otis W. Brawley is the Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Oncology and Epidemiology at Johns Hopkins University. He is an authority on cancer screening and prevention and leads a broad interdisciplinary research effort that is concentrated on the appropriate practice of evidence-based medicine, efficiency in healthcare and the waste that occurs when there is not orthodox interpretation of science. Brawley is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine, a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (London), a Fellow of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, a Fellow of the American College of Epidemiology and one of the few physicians to be named a Master of the American College of Physicians. Dr. Brawley was chief medical and scientific officer of the American Cancer Society from 2007 to 2018.
He is a graduate of University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine. He completed an internal medicine residency at Case-Western Reserve University and a fellowship in medical oncology at the National Cancer Institute. He is board certified in Internal medicine and medical oncology.