BMJ 2008;336:1093 (17 May), doi:10.1136/bmj.39580.353495.DB
News
Falling death rate from prostate cancer suggests that PSA screening may be useful, study says
Roger Dobson
1 Abergavenny
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
General screening with the prostate specific antigen (PSA) test may be effective in reducing the number of deaths from prostate cancer, new research indicates.
In the United States and six other countries mortality from the disease is now lower than it was before the PSA test was introduced in the late 1980s, the study says (International Journal of Cancer doi: 10.1002/ijc.23520), indicating that PSA screening "could reduce prostate cancer mortality in the male population."
The authors of the study, which looked at recent trends in prostate cancer mortality in 38 countries, say that only ongoing clinical trials in the US and Europe—whose results are expected over the next two years—will be able to distinguish between the contributions of screening and advances in treatment to the fall in mortality.
However, they add, "From a general public health point of view, to observe a decrease in mortality, even before the
CiteULike 
Complore 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us 
Digg 
Reddit 
Technorati What's this?
This article
- Full text
- Respond to this article
- Alert me when this article is cited
- Alert me when responses are posted
- Alert me when a correction is posted
Services
- Email this article to a friend
- Find similar articles in BMJ
- Add article to my folders
- Download to citation manager
- Request Permissions
Google Scholar
PubMed
Related content
Bookmark with
What's new
Student BMJ poll
Resources
Tools
Online poll
Services
Rapid responses for this article
There are no rapid responses for this article.Most read last week
Print issues
Student BMJ
Intimate examinations
Israeli students are refusing to perform intimate examinations on anaesthetised women without their informed consent.
