What to know
Men should talk to their doctor about the possible benefits and risks of screening for prostate cancer.
Overview
The goal of screening for prostate cancer is to find cancers that may be at high risk for spreading if not treated, and to find them early before they spread. However, most prostate cancers grow slowly or not at all.
The main prostate cancer screening test is the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) blood test. PSA is a substance the prostate makes.
Talk to your doctor
If you are thinking about being screened, you and your doctor should consider:
- If you have a higher risk of getting prostate cancer.
- If you have other health problems that may make it hard for you to be treated for prostate cancer if it is found, or that may make you less likely to benefit from screening.
- How you feel about the potential benefits and risks of screening, diagnosis, and treatment.
Possible benefits of screening
The benefits of screening for prostate cancer may include:
- Finding prostate cancers that may be at high risk of spreading, so that they can be treated before they spread. This may lower the chance of death from prostate cancer in some men.
- Some men prefer to know if they have prostate cancer.
Possible risks
The possible risks of screening for prostate cancer can come from screening itself, diagnosis, and treatment.
Possible risk from screening
False positive test results: This occurs when a man has an abnormal PSA test but does not have prostate cancer. False positive test results often lead to unnecessary tests, like a biopsy of the prostate. They may cause men to worry about their health. Older men are more likely to have false positive test results.
Possible risks from diagnosis
Prostate cancer screening sometimes finds cancer in men who would never have had problems from it. Treating these men can lead to complications from the treatment, but they won't benefit from it because their cancer was not harmful. This is called overdiagnosis.
Prostate cancer is diagnosed with a prostate biopsy. A biopsy is when a small piece of tissue is removed from the prostate and looked at under a microscope to see if there are cancer cells. A biopsy may cause complications, especially in older men.
A prostate biopsy can cause:
- Pain.
- Blood in the semen or ejaculate.
- Infection.
Possible risks from treatment
Before 2010, common treatments to cure prostate cancer included surgery to remove the prostate and radiation therapy. Since about 2010, more men have received active surveillance (closely monitoring the prostate cancer to see if it grows before treating it).
The most common harms from prostate cancer treatment with surgery or radiation are:
- Urinary incontinence (leaking urine).
- Erectile dysfunction (impotence).
- Bowel problems, including fecal incontinence (leaking bowel movements) and urgency (sudden and uncontrollable urge to have a bowel movement).
More information
- Understanding Prostate Changes and Conditions (National Cancer Institute)
- Prostate-Specific Antigen (PSA) Test (National Cancer Institute)
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