The United States Preventive Services Task Force recommendation against prostate-specific antigen screening--counterpoint.

As aprostate cancer expert, I amdisturbed by the recent U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) draft recommendation against prostate cancer screening in asymptomatic men (1) and hope to clarify information from recent studies on this issue. Implementation of the USPSTF draft recommendation has the potential to cause great harm. Prostate cancer is a leading cause of cancer death, and countless men would unnecessarily suffer and die from prostate cancer if this draft is accepted. To support its recommendation, the USPSTF highlighted 3 randomized clinical trials (RCT): the European Randomized Study of Prostate Cancer Screening (ERSPC; ref. 2), theGoteborg trial (Sweden; ref. 3), and the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, Ovarian trial (PLCO; ref. 4). However, they gave little weight to the 2 trials that showed substantial reduction of prostate cancer mortality: (ERSPC; ref. 2) and Goteborg (3).