[Screening for asymptomatic prostate cancer].
The high prevalence of the disease, the absence of primary prevention and the wide accessibility to the PSA test have led to the promotion of prostate cancer screening in asymptomatic individuals. A critical appraisal of available data fails to support this enthousiasm: formal evidence demonstrating that radical treatment of infraclinical cancers through population screening reduce mortality is lacking. A large proportion of screen-detected cancers has a favourable biological behaviour and hence does not justify radical therapeutic options endowed with significant morbidity. A better understanding of the mechanisms governing tumor progression should provide means to develop markers allowing for an improved selection of high-risk patients susceptible to benefit from radical treatments.
Sappino
A-P
AP
Service d'oncologie, HUG, 1211 Genève 14. andre-pascal.sappino@hcuge.ch
D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000379:methods*; D017430:Prostate-Specific Antigen / Q000097:blood; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000628:therapy
D017430:Prostate-Specific Antigen