A comprehensive new review of cases may give a once-dismissed prostate cancer test a boost, reports STAT News. An updated review by the Cochrane Collaboration—a renowned science research group—suggests that PSA blood screening trims the risk of dying from prostate cancer, though by a small margin: roughly two fewer prostate cancer deaths for every 1,000 men screened, based on six trials involving 800,000 men in Europe and North America. Though the benefit appears modest, it nonetheless marks a shift from Cochrane's 2013 review, which saw no clear benefit and helped push major medical groups to discourage routine PSA testing.
Researchers stress they're not offering a blanket endorsement. The test can still trigger unnecessary biopsies and treatment for slow-growing cancers that might never cause harm, with side effects including infection, incontinence, and sexual dysfunction. Experts say the new data support offering PSA screening to men most likely to benefit, but only in the context of regular care and long-term follow-up, not one-off tests at health fairs or church parking lots.
"Prostate cancer screening does reduce prostate cancer mortality, although the caveat is that it takes a very extended period of time to realize that benefit," says urologist Philipp Dahm of the University of Minnesota, a senior author of the Cochrane review, per the Guardian. "This finding is a milestone, and I think it will make a difference for a lot of policymakers."
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