Key points from article :
A large-scale study, involving over 400,000 men, was conducted by researchers at the Universities of Bristol, Oxford, and Cambridge to evaluate the effectiveness of the PSA test in detecting prostate cancer.
The PSA test is commonly used to screen for prostate cancer, but researchers found that it has only a small impact on reducing prostate cancer deaths.
The study also revealed that the PSA test misses some aggressive cancers and can lead to overdiagnosis (detecting cancers that wouldn't be harmful).
Overdiagnosis from PSA testing can lead to unnecessary treatment, potentially causing physical side effects and psychological distress.
While the PSA test slightly lowered prostate cancer death rates, researchers concluded that the potential harms outweigh the benefits for healthy men.
Scientists are actively searching for better ways to accurately diagnose aggressive prostate cancers early to improve treatment and reduce unnecessary interventions.
The research is published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).
