Leader in Prostate Health Urges Prostate Cancer Screening in Face of Contradi...( DENVER March 18 -- New data evaluati...),Health

DENVER, March 18 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- New data evaluating the impact of screening on mortality provides mixed messages on the value of prostate cancer screening. The Prostate Conditions Education Council (PCEC), a national organization committed to men's health and a leader in prostate cancer screening, announced today that screening practices should be continued, based on new data from two studies, including the preliminary data from the prostate component of the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian (PLCO) study.

Two studies featured in the March 26 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine present findings from the PLCO study and the European Randomized Study of Screening for Prostate Cancer (ERSPC). Early data reported from the PLCO study found there was no early mortality benefit from annual prostate cancer screening. Alternatively, long-term data from the ERSPC study show that screening reduced the rate of mortality by 20 percent. While the study designs differ, together they offer an opportunity for comparison.

"More time and further investigation is needed to fully understand and evaluate the impact of prostate cancer screening on mortality before discontinuing screening practices," said Dr. E. David Crawford, one of the principal investigators of the prostate component of the PLCO study and head of the Urologic Oncology Department at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. Dr. Crawford is also the founder and chairman of the PCEC.

"Since the Prostate-Specific Antigen test was made available, we have seen a decrease in deaths attributed to prostate cancer. At this point, it is inappropriate to summarily deny screenings for patients based on these data," said Wendy Poage, president of the PCEC.

While the cancer community continues to seek long-term results, there is already a wealth of research that shows the Prostate-Specific Antigen (P
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