Prostate Cancer Screening (PDQ®)–Health Professional Version

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Changes to This Summary (03/31/2017)

The PDQ cancer information summaries are reviewed regularly and updated as new information becomes available. This section describes the latest changes made to this summary as of the date above.

Harms of Screening

Added text to state that screening increases detection of indolent, unsuspected, and asymptomatic prostate cancer.

Added text to state that an unintended consequence of screening and biopsy is the erroneous assumption that a screened population is at increased risk of developing significant disease. Also added text about a study that examined the magnitude of prostate cancer risk associated with specific factors across the Selenium and Vitamin E Cancer Prevention Trial (SELECT) and Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial cohorts; the authors demonstrated that the likelihood of undergoing screening and biopsy depends on certain known or suspected risk factors and that in turn, differential screening and biopsy may result in spurious conclusions regarding risk factors for prostate cancer; for example, the authors explained that the labeling of a random characteristic such as blue eyes as a risk factor may increase biopsy rates among men with blue eyes, resulting in detection of indolent prostate cancer and leading to the erroneous conclusion that blue eyes are a risk factor for prostate cancer (cited Tangen et al. as reference 1).

Added text to state that negative impacts of screen detection on measures of risk may include the following: interventions that may have no effect on prostate cancer course and may have harmful side effects; time, cost, and anxiety associated with diagnosis of inconsequential disease; and misdirection of research focus and resources; measurements of risk in men who undergo screening differ from measurements of risk in men who do not undergo screening; past and current screening and biopsy practices may misrepresent prostate cancer risk factors, and better methods for identifying consequential prostate cancer are needed to avoid unnecessary biopsies. Also added text to state that measurements of risk in men who undergo screening differ from measurements of risk in men who do not undergo screening; past and current screening and biopsy practices may misrepresent prostate cancer risk factors, and better methods for identifying consequential prostate cancer are needed to avoid unnecessary biopsies.

This summary is written and maintained by the PDQ Screening and Prevention Editorial Board, which is editorially independent of NCI. The summary reflects an independent review of the literature and does not represent a policy statement of NCI or NIH. More information about summary policies and the role of the PDQ Editorial Boards in maintaining the PDQ summaries can be found on the About This PDQ Summary and PDQ® - NCI's Comprehensive Cancer Database pages.

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