Prostate Cancer Screening Doesn't Cut Death Rates: Study

Prostate Cancer Screening Doesn't Cut Death Rates: Study

And researchers add that widescale testing is linked to overdiagnosis, overtreatment

By Amanda Gardner
HealthDay Reporter

THURSDAY, March 31 (HealthDay News) -- A 20-year study from Sweden suggests that screening for prostate cancer does not substantially reduce the risk of death from the disease.

On the other hand, a good many men might receive false-positive results and overtreatment, adding an element of risk to widescale screening, the researchers report in the March 31 online issue of the BMJ.

"In the light of our findings, I would say that the benefit from screening is not sufficient to support mass screening," said study author Dr. Gabriel Sandblom, an associate professor at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm.

"However," added Sandblom, "the study was initiated more than 20 years ago, when PSA [prostate specific antigen testing] was not available and the treatment of localized prostate cancer was not as effective as it is today. I would thus not categorically advise against PSA testing based on an individual decision from a man who feels concern about prostate cancer."

This advice is not out of line with recently updated guidelines on prostate cancer screening from the U.S. government. The recommendations, issued in 2008, take a dim view of prostate cancer screenings at any age for healthy men and flatly recommend against them entirely for men over 75.

The American Cancer Society has also recently revisited the issue of prostate cancer screening.

"A little over a year ago, the American Cancer Society revised its guidelines, which reinforced the message that men need to be informed that there are known benefits, but also limits, to PSA screenings," said Dr. Durado Brooks, director of prostate and colon cancer at the American Cancer Society. "The American Cancer Society does not encourage nor discourage prostate cancer screenings."

This new study does carry with it several significant weaknesses, Brooks added. In particular, because of the timing and design of the study, most men really only received one and, at most, two PSA tests.

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