New Doubts on Value of Prostate Cancer Screening March 31, 2011 -- A study from Sweden raises new questions about the value of screening average-risk men for prostate cancer.

In the study, screening did not significantly reduce prostate cancer deaths over two decades of follow-up, but it did result in the detection of more cases of the cancer and more treatment.

The study is not as large as several other recent trials suggesting that routine screening leads to the over-detection and overtreatment of prostate cancer, but it is the longest.

Starting in 1987, some study participants received routine screening for prostate cancer while others did not. Twenty years later, the two groups had similar prostatecancer death rates.

“We found no survival advantage for screening, but this may have been influenced by the fact that the screening test we used when the trial started is not as sensitive as the tests we use today,” study researcher Gabriel Sandblom, MD, of Stockholm’s Karolinska Institute, tells WebMD.

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