Looking closely at prostate cancer statistics - Over the past 30 years there has been an increase in incidence of prostate cancer paralleled by a similar increase in survival rates. However, there is no real evidence over this time of a similar degree of improvement in curative treatment. The researchers documented a steady improvement in survival over time. The authors attributed the results to detection of early, essentially non-lethal tumors, and calculated that at least one third of the patients diagnosed between 1980 and 1984 had such tumors. It is true that the course the cancer will eventually take cannot be known for sure, since there are no tests to determine which will progress and which will stay limited and not become a threat to life.
Much research is underway to develop such tests.
Use of such multiple and complex tests may be the answer. The Swedish researchers attribute the increased incidence of small tumors to increased use of digital rectal examinations and of TURP, the transurethral surgical treatment for benign enlargement of the prostate. To this should be added increasing reliance on PSA measurements as a screening tool for early prostate cancer. PSA as a screen for prostate cancer, a feasibility study from Finland - PSA measurements are being increasingly used to identify prostate cancer that is still confined to the organ and so treatable. To be useful, a screening test must be readily accepted by the population that is at risk.