New screening recommendations were issued on Wednesday in which the American Cancer Society warned that harmful and unnecessary treatment could be avoided if doctors made the risks clearer to patients.

The guidelines concerning prostate screening in more than a decade came following two major studies that took place last year. The study examined whether the prostate-specific antigen, or PSA, blood test actually saves lives.

Durango Brooks, the society's director of prostate and colorectal cancers said, “The new guidelines give information on the discussions doctors and patients need to have before any blood is drawn. Screening should not take place in the absence of informed decision-making.”

These guidelines express increasing concerns in the cancer community about the risks of over testing and over treating.

Several women who were in their 40s in 2009 were told by a government task force not to get mammograms and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists called for young women to get Pap smears less often. University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center study found that preventative double mastectomy does not necessarily help.

Doctors are urged by the guidelines to give written information or videos to the patients that discuss the likelihood of false positive test results and treatment side effects.