Study confirms sustained reduction in prostate cancer mortality with PSA screening

The European Randomized Study of Screening for Prostate Cancer (ERSPC) sheds new light on the long-term impact of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screening on prostate cancer mortality.

The study found that PSA screening results in a 13% relative reduction in prostate cancer mortality 23 years after the start of screening. This means that for every 456 men invited for screening, one death from prostate cancer was prevented compared to those who were not invited.

“Long-term follow-up demonstrates that PSA screening can substantially reduce deaths from prostate cancer,” says Anssi Auvinen, Professor of Epidemiology at Tampere University. “Yet, the effect starts to wane once screening is discontinued and largely disappears within nine years.”

Auvinen is one of the principal investigato