Prostate cancer screening: a new way forward or another false start?

Serum PSA testing can identify men with clinically significant prostate cancer but exposes many more men to the diagnosis of indolent tumours. Benafif and colleagues have published the results of the BARCODE1 pilot study, in which they propose using germline single-nucleotide polymorphisms to identify men with a genetic risk of developing prostate cancer. Based on their preliminary findings, changing the current prostate cancer screening paradigm will be a challenge.

Automated summary

PSA testing can identify men with significant prostate cancer, but may also lead to overdiagnosis of indolent tumors. Using germline single-nucleotide polymorphisms to identify men at genetic risk of developing prostate cancer could be a promising approach, but changing the current screening paradigm poses challenges based on preliminary findings.