title: Screening and early diagnosis of prostate cancer: an update.
abstract: Screening for prostate cancer has become a main controversial topic. First the currently used screening tools, PSA (Prostate Specific Antigen) and DRE (Digital Rectal Examination) have a low accuracy in the prediction of prostate cancer. Second, the benefit of screening in reducing the prostate cancer related mortality was not uniformly shown in older screening studies and there was concern about the risk of overdiagnosis and over-treatment of insignificant prostate cancers. Very recently, 3 major prospective, randomized screening studies have been published. This paper aims to provide an overview how the performance of the current screening tools can be ameliorated and evaluates the recently published screening studies with practical considerations for future screening protocols.
authors.affiliation: Dept. of Urology, Ghent University Hospital, Ghent, Belgium. lumennicolaas@hotmaiI.com
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Lumen
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Fonteyne
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: De Meerleer
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: De Visschere
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ost
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Oosterlinck
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Villeirs
mesh_terms: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000032:analysis; D051517:Digital Rectal Examination; D042241:Early Diagnosis; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D017430:Prostate-Specific Antigen / Q000097:blood; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis*
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D017430:Prostate-Specific Antigen