Summary

Prostate cancer screening means looking for prostate cancer before it causes symptoms. The goal of screening is to find cancers that may be at high risk for spreading if not treated and to find them early before they spread. Leading experts do not recommend screening for prostate cancer unless men express a preference for screening after being informed of and understanding the benefits and risks. The potential harms of screening, diagnostic procedures, and treatment, including major complications such as erectile dysfunction, urination issues, and infections, occur soon after screening takes place. Although the potential benefits may occur any time after screening, they generally occur years after treatment, because progression from asymptomatic, screen-detected cancer to symptomatic, metastasized cancer or death (if it occurs at all) may take years or decades to occur.

Certain experts recommend MP-MRI as the first-line investigation for all men with suspected localized prostate cancer while others recommend MP-MRI generally or prior to a follow-up biopsy. The MP-MRI is more sensitive at detecting clinically significant cancers than are PSA tests, biopsies and digital rectal examinations. Other experts conclude with moderate certainty that the net benefit of PSA-based screening for prostate cancer in men aged 55 to 69 years is small for some men depending on how they weigh the benefits vs. the harms, and with moderate certainty that the potential benefits of PSA-based screening for prostate cancer in men 70 years and older do not outweigh the expected harms.

Sourced from CDC, USPSTF, Cochrane