following controversy o over the recommendation by the US Preventive Services Task Force in 2011 to reduce prostate-specific antigen screening for prostate cancer, a new study assesses the pros and cons.

A year after draft guidelines on PSA screening were published by the USPSTF, diagnoses of new low-risk prostate cancers had fallen by 37.9%.
In October 2011, the US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) decided that the harms of regular prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screening outweighed the benefits, which led them to recommend against regular screening for prostate cancer.
A combination of radiation therapy, surgery and complications associated with treatment for the condition were felt to be having too great a negative impact on the quality of life of many of those being treated.
A team from the Department of Urologic Surgery at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, TN, wanted to know what impact the new guidelines have had.
"We know there is decreased utilization of PSA testing in some institutions and health systems, but has the number of incident cases per month changed substantially since the draft guideline was issued?," says lead investigator Dr. Daniel A. Barocas.
The study - published in The Journal of Urology - looked at screening practices among urologists and primary care providers and the incidence of prostate cancer to identify any changes in the number and distribution of new prostate cancer diagnoses in the US.