The New England Journal of Medicine recently published research findings on prostate cancer screening. The results, from my reading at least, showed that screening was not terribly useful. So I was bewildered by subsequent media coverage that urged men to exercise “their right” to a prostate specific antigen blood test or PSA. A number of people called for the UK urgently to review its PSA screening policy.

The problem is that many prostate cancers are “benign” in their behaviour – men die with, rather than from, them – and the treatment is worse than the disease. The difficulty is in distinguishing these more placid tumours from aggressive ones.

The NEJM reported on two randomised controlled trials, one from Europe and the other from the US, where the PSA test is already widely used. The US study, involving almost 77,000 men, assigned half to PSA screening for six years and rectal examination for four years. The other group had “usual care”. After seven to 10 years’ follow-up, there was no significant difference in the mortality rate between the two groups.

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