Prostate Cancer Overdiagnosis Increases Substantially With Age

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By Elana Gotkine HealthDay Reporter

Medically reviewed by Drugs.com

via HealthDay

WEDNESDAY, April 29, 2026 -- Prostate cancer overdiagnosis increases considerably with age due to competing mortality and is relatively low for younger men, according to a study published online April 22 in the International Journal of Cancer.

Adam R. Brentnall, Ph.D., from the Queen Mary University of London, and colleagues estimated the impact of age on excess prostate cancer incidence within 15 years using long-term follow-up data from the U.K. Cluster Randomised Trial of PSA (prostate-specific antigen) Testing for Prostate Cancer (CAP) trial of a one-off screen and English male competing mortality rates for 2021 to 2023.

At the one-off screen, 2,249 (1.19 percent) of 189,386 men invited for a PSA test in CAP had cancer detected. The researchers found that the cumulative incidence of prostate cancer at 15 years was 7.08 and 6.94 percent in those invited to screening and in the control arm, respectively (absolute excess incidence difference of 0.14 percent). At 15 years, the excess net incidence was 11.7 percent of cases detected at a single prevalent screen. Men diagnosed at screening aged 50 years were projected to have a 16 percent chance that the cancer would not have been detected within 15 years, accounting for competing mortality, rising to 32 and 58 percent if detected at screening when aged 70 and 80 years, respectively.

"These findings suggest the need for more targeted, age-informed PSA testing or prostate cancer screening policies, including reexamining PSA testing policies in settings where they have led to high rates of opportunistic screening in older men, like the U.K.," Brentnall said in a statement.

One author disclosed ties to OPKO Diagnostics.

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Disclaimer: Statistical data in medical articles provide general trends and do not pertain to individuals. Individual factors can vary greatly. Always seek personalized medical advice for individual healthcare decisions.

Source: HealthDay

Posted : 2026-04-30 09:35

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