Efficacy of Prostate-Specific Antigen Screening

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Abstract
The Prostate Lung Colorectal and Ovarian (PLCO) cancer screening trial randomized 76 693 men from 1993 to 2001 to usual care or annual prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screening for 6 years and annual digital rectal examination for 4 years. This study found that PSA screening results in increased detection of prostate cancer but does not reduce prostate cancer–specific or overall mortality. The findings of the PLCO cancer screening trial are controversial largely because of a high rate of PSA screening in the control group, which reached 52% by the sixth year of the trial.1,2 Despite this shortcoming, the PLCO trial is likely to remain the only major trial of PSA screening in the United States.