Prostate Cancer Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Prostate Cancer, including details on symptoms, genetics, screening, treatment, information.

Screening for prostate cancer.

Postma R, Schröder FH

Department of Urology, Josephine Nefkens Institute, Erasmus MC, P.O. Box 1738, 3000 DR, Rotterdam, The Netherlands. r.postma@erasmusmc.nl

Epidemiologically, prostate cancer is the most common cancer in the Western world after skin cancer. To date, it is still unknown whether screening for prostate cancer is justified, because results of randomised clinical trials are not yet available. The available screening tests (i.e. prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test) do not always detect cancers that otherwise would have resulted in prostate cancer mortality. Favourable results from prostate cancer screening include an increasing number of men with localised disease and an increase in the number of well-differentiated tumours. However, the risk of overdiagnosis and subsequent over-treatment (due to the diagnosis of localised disease), using aggressive therapies fuels arguments against screening. Therefore, until more evidence is available proving otherwise, prostate cancer screening can only be justified in the context of clinical trials.

Published 5 April 2005 in Eur J Cancer, 41(6): 825-33.
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