Prostate cancer: to screen or not to screen.

This paper evaluates the use of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) as a screening tool for prostate cancer. A current and contentious issue in both public and medical spheres, we are still lacking clear evidence and guidelines. Here, the Wilson and Jungner screening criteria are used as a framework to suggest that PSA-testing is not yet a proven tool for population screening. Additionally, the conflicting results of two recent randomised controlled trials are compared. The European Randomised trial of Screening for Prostate Cancer (ERSPC) found that PSA screening reduced prostate cancer-related deaths by 20% (adjusted p=0.04). Meanwhile the North American Prostate, Lung, Colon and Ovarian cancer trial (PLCO) found no significant impact of screening on mortality. The reasons for these differing outcomes are discussed in greater detail under the categories of methodology, study size, screening interval, cause of death and tumour demographics. The authors of this article conclude that PSA screening, at best, has a moderate impact on prostate cancer mortality. PSA-screening does, however, pose a high risk of over-diagnosis and over-treatment with its associated morbidity. Furthermore, economic and quality of life evaluations are lacking at present. Data are awaited from the UK Department of Health - funded ProtecT study,as well as longer-term outcomes of the ERSPC.