Appraising the European randomized study of screening for prostate cancer: what do the results mean?

The value of screening for prostate cancer has been a contentious issue within the medical literature for several decades. At the crux of the matter lies a judgment call of whether the potential benefits of screening, a reduction in prostate cancer and all-cause mortality, outweigh the limitations, overdiagnosis and overtreatment. The study by Schröder et al. reports 9, 11 and 13-year follow-up data on men participating in the European randomized study of screening for prostate cancer (ERSPC). While the authors report a significant reduction in prostate cancer mortality, they conclude that potential harms associated with screening currently circumvent any recommendation for a population-based approach to screening for prostate cancer.