Study Dismisses Digital Prostate Exams for Cancer Screening

A recent study discovered that using a digital rectal exam by itself or with a blood test doesn’t enhance the detection of prostate cancer more than just using the blood test alone. This suggests that digital exams may not be as helpful as believed and might not be necessary for screening men without signs of prostate cancer.

Digital Rectal Examination

The main ways to check for prostate cancer doctors use the finger exam called a digital rectal examination (DRE) and a blood test measuring prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels. PSA, a protein produced by both cancerous and non-cancerous prostate tissue, so high levels can mean either cancer or a non-cancerous enlarged prostate. The DRE involves a finger check, usually used with the PSA test for diagnosis.

Which is the Best Method?

Which method is more effective for diagnosing prostate cancer, or do we need both? A recent study by researchers from the Comprehensive Cancer Center at the Medical University of Vienna and Vienna General Hospital may have found the answer.

More Results

The scientists did a detailed analysis by combining information from eight studies that involved 85,738 people aged 45 to 98. Among these, three studies used a randomized controlled approach, while five studies were prospective diagnostic studies.

The included studies looks at men getting screen for prostate cancer, comparing the effectiveness of the digital rectal examination (DRE) method to the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test. The researchers focused on assessing how well these methods could predict positive cases and detect cancer.

The results indicated that using both DRE and PSA for prostate cancer screening did not show a notable advantage compared to using PSA alone in predicting and identifying cancer. Although there was no significant distinction in predictive accuracy between DRE and PSA, PSA demonstrated a significantly higher rate of detecting cancer compared to DRE.

Interesting Insight

“Rectal examination may not be necessary for routine prostate cancer screening in the absence of symptoms, as its effectiveness in detecting cancer is not particularly impressive”, according to Shahrokh Shariat, the study’s corresponding author.

Balance

This study talks about how good the rectal exam is at finding prostate cancer early. But since the blood test (PSA) is cheap and the rectal exam makes patients uncomfortable, the researchers think the blood test is a better and less distressing way to screen for prostate cancer. They also mention that many men don’t like the rectal exam, so they might skip getting checked for prostate cancer, which could be risky.

Read the Original Article: New Atlas

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