Viewpoint: limiting prostate cancer screening.
Prostate cancer screening is controversial, and major professional associations offer differing screening guidelines. The author addresses 3 key issues about prostate cancer screening: 1) the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) criteria to recommend a prostate biopsy, 2) the appropriate age to start screening, and 3) the appropriate age to stop screening. The author argues, on the basis of evidence published since 2000, that data supporting the efficacy of PSA screening remain unconvincing. The author recommends that screening should not be expanded to include average-risk men younger than age 50 years or older than age 75 years and that a PSA threshold below 4.0 ng/mL should not be used to trigger biopsy referral.
New Mexico Veterans Affairs Health Care System and the Cancer Research and Treatment Center, University of New Mexico School of Medicine, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87108, USA. rhoffman@unm.edu
Richard M
RM
Hoffman
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D001706:Biopsy; D051517:Digital Rectal Examination; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening; D008875:Middle Aged; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D017430:Prostate-Specific Antigen / Q000097:blood; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis*; D012017:Referral and Consultation; D012307:Risk Factors
D017430:Prostate-Specific Antigen