WASHINGTON (AP) - Updated advice from a government panel says healthy men shouldn't get routine prostate cancer screenings.

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force panel found PSA blood tests do more harm than good. The panel proposed the guidance last fall and stuck with it despite strenuous protests from urologists.

The guideline isn't a mandate. The task force stresses that men who want a PSA test still can get one, but only after the doctor explains the uncertainties. The group says too many men are harmed from treatment of tiny tumors that never would have killed them.

The advice though isn't likely to end an annual ritual for many men 50 and older.

The guidance was published Monday in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

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