PSA prostate cancer screening found more beneficial than previous estimates, especially for blacks

For their calculations, lead author Dr. Spyridon Basourakos, a resident in urology at Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, and colleagues improved on the previous estimates of overdiagnoses and overtreatment. Namely, they included 11 more years of data than prior estimates; calculated estimates for men of all races and Black men; and used complementary approaches to estimating overdiagnosis.

Under conservative assumptions about screening's benefits, the investigators estimated that for men of all races one death was prevented for every 11 to 14 men diagnosed with prostate cancer and every 7 to 11 men treated for the disease. For Black men screening resulted in one death prevented for every 8 to 12 men diagnosed, and every 5 to 9 men treated. For more optimistic assumptions about screening, these tradeoffs were even more favorable, with numbers needed to treat in the low single digits for Black men.

The new analysis supports PSA screening, particularly for Black men and others at high risk, and highlight the need to revise clinical guidelines to accurately reflect the value of screening, the authors wrote.  

Read the full article at:

https://news.weill.cornell.edu/news/2022/05/benefits-of-psa-prostate-cancer-screening-found-to-be-more-favorable-than-previous