[Preliminary data of the Spanish contribution to the European Randomized Study on Screening of Prostate Cancer (ERSPC)].
OBJECTIVE
Data from the participation of our department in the ERSPC study in terms of detection and PSA diagnostic yield, staging, therapeutic management and mortality in the context of a multicentric randomized screening study for prostate cancer.


METHODS
Patients were recruited between February 1996 and June 1999, randomized in screening and control arms, with several rounds for screening patients with four-year intervals, with PSA analysis and sextant prostate biopsy (t PSA > 4 ng/ml before May 1998, tPSA > 2.99 ng/ml after May 1998). These tests were not done in the control group. All deaths were studied (date and cause)


RESULTS
A total of 4278 patients were included, 24 16 in the screening arm (56.4%) and 1862 in the control arm (43.5%), with an age between 45 and 70 years (mean age 57.8 years, 95 CI 57.6-58.0). Median follow-up was 8.77 years. 142 prostate cancers were found, 113 in the screening arm (accumulated detection rate 4.7%) and 29 in the control arm (1.6%). Detection rates were 1.7%, 2.2% and 0% in the first, second and third round respectively. Organ confined cancers (T1 and T2) were 102 in the screening arm (90.3%) and 24 in the control arm (82.8%), p = 0.254 . Metastatic disease was found in six patients (4.2% out of 142), 3 in the screening arm ( 2.7%) and three in the control arm (10.3%), p = 0.187. Radical prostatectomy was the most frequently performed treatment: 47 cases in the screening arm (41.6%), 10 in the control arm (34.5%). 151 patients have died, 82 in the screening arm and 69 in the control arm. Only 3 of this deaths were secondary to prostate cancer, all of them in the screening arm (p = 0.308).


CONCLUSIONS
We observed a non significant tendency to lower clinical stages in patients undergoing screening. Radical surgery was the treatment of choice in patients with prostate cancer. Even with the current follow-up in the series (close to 9 years), no differences have been observed in terms of prostate cancer mortality between both study arms.
Torres Zambrano
Gina
G
Servicio de Urología, Hospital Universitario de Getafe, Getafe, Madrid, España. gmtorres.hugf@salud.madrid.org
Lujan Galán
Marcos
M
Pascual Mateo
Carlos
C
García Tello
Ana
A
Rodríguez
Nuria
N
Berenguer Sánchez
Antonio
A
D000368:Aged; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000401:mortality / Q000628:therapy; D013030:Spain