Routine prostate cancer screening could cut death rates from the disease by 20%, a major study suggests.
The results, which suggest 2,000 lives a year could be saved in the UK, have prompted a review of the current policy not to offer routine NHS screening.
The study, based on results from 162,000 men, assessed the impact of testing levels of a protein called prostate specific antigen (PSA).
It is published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
There has been concern that the PSA test could produce inaccurate results, leading to some men receiving unnecessary treatment which carries a risk of side effects such as impotence and incontinence…read more here.
