What Causes Prostate Cancer?
7. Screening
As previously mentioned, DRE and PSA are commonly used for prostate cancer. A review of 7 studies involving 9,241 patients found that DRE by primary care physicians has poor accuracy for prostate cancer screening. Prostate cancer screening is a controversial issue as screening allows early detection but most cases are low-grade and have little threat of mortality or morbidity.
There are also many clinicians who have also argued that early intervention for prostate cancer does not result in measurable survival advantage. Another review reported that screening for prostate cancer at best leads only to a small reduction in mortality over 10 years. A study analyzing the complications from biopsies and treatment have found that 94 out of 1,000 will have hematospermia and 1 will be hospitalized, most likely for sepsis.
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