Prostate
PLCO Trial Reports Baseline Data for Prostate Cancer Screening
By Journal of the National Cancer Institute
Mar 18, 2005, 23:18

The prostate component of the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal and Ovarian (PLCO) Cancer Trial is designed to determine the impact of annual screening with prostate-specific antigen (PSA) testing and digital rectal exam on mortality from prostate cancer by comparing one group of men who receive screening with a control group of men undergoing routine medical care. In a new study, Gerald L. Andriole, M.D., of the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, and colleagues report findings from the initial round of screening. The final results of the trial are still several years away.

Of the more than 38,000 men in the screening group, 7.5% had a positive digital rectal exam (suspicious for cancer), and 7.9% had a PSA level higher than 4 ng/mL.

Of the men who had positive screening tests, 74.2% underwent additional diagnostic testing, and 31.5% had a prostatic biopsy within a year. Overall, 1.4% of the men in the screening group were diagnosed with prostate cancer, most of which was clinically localized cancer.

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