Single Invitation for PSA Screening Cuts Prostate Cancer Deaths

MONDAY, April 8, 2024 (HealthDay News) — A single invitation for prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screening is associated with reduced prostate cancer deaths, although the absolute reduction is small, according to a study published online April 6 in the Journal of the American Medical Association to coincide with the 39th Annual European Association of Urology Congress, held from April 5 to 8 in Paris.

Richard M. Martin, B.M., B.S., Ph.D., from the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom, and colleagues examined the effect of a single invitation for PSA screening on prostate cancer-specific mortality in a secondary analysis of the Cluster Randomized Trial of PSA Testing for Prostate Cancer involving men aged 50 to 69 years. Ninety-eight percent of the 415,357 eligible men were included in the analyses.

In the intervention and control groups, 12,013 and 12,958 men had a prostate cancer diagnosis (15-year cumulative risk, 7.08 and 6.94 percent, respectively). The researchers found that 0.69 and 0.78 percent of men in the intervention and control groups, respectively, died of prostate cancer at a median 15-year follow-up (rate ratio, 0.92). The PSA screening intervention increased detection of low-grade and localized disease compared with control. All-cause deaths did not differ significantly between the groups (23.2 and 23.3 percent in the intervention and control groups, respectively). Overall, 0.7 and 0.5 percent of prostate cancer deaths in the intervention and control groups, respectively, were related to a diagnostic biopsy or prostate cancer treatment.

“Policymakers considering screening for prostate cancer should consider this small reduction in deaths against the potential adverse effects associated with overdiagnosis and overtreatment of prostate cancer,” the authors write.

Two authors disclosed ties to industry.

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