Towards personalized prostate cancer screening

Abstract

The value of the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) in prostate cancer (PCa) screening is controversial. Contradictory results have been reported in the literature as to whether PSA-based screening reduces mortality. Also, some of the studies published are methodologically flawed. However, evidence consistently demonstrates that screening programs results in the identification of patients with indolent prostatic tumors which rate has increased. Controversy is not only about the value of PSA-based screening, but also about the age range for screening, risk groups based on baseline PSA, PSA ranges, or the use of other biomarkers (PHI, 4Kscore). At present, PCa screening in the general population is not recommended by most scientific societies, although it can be used after discussing the risks and benefits with the patient. When discussing the need to perform a screening, the risks of using screening (lack of specificity of PSA, overdiagnosis) must be weighed against the risks of not performing it (increased rate of patients with initial diagnosis of metastasis). In the recent years, a number of authors have advocated the use of personalized screening, which could change the risk/benefit evaluation, thereby making screening necessary on the basis of a set of individual factors.