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Study finds public health benefits from free PSA testing

Category: Prostate

Offering free PSA testing may be a useful and cost-effective way to reduce mortality rates associated with prostate cancer, according to a recent study published in Renal and Urology News.

European researchers looked at data from the Tyrol Project, which is an initiative that began in 1988 and offers free PSA testing to every man between the ages of 45 and 75 in the Austrian state of Tyrol. By 2005, more than 86 percent of the state’s male population had been screened for prostate cancer.

By 2008, researchers found that the mortality rate of prostate cancer had decreased by 64 percent in the state. While testing played an important part of the reduction in prostate cancer-related deaths, researchers said that many of the men involved in the study also had access to effective treatment.

“If you are going to do [free PSA screening] it is necessary that you have the ability to give patients the optimal treatment,” Jasmin Bektin, the Innsbruck Medical University researcher who led the study, told the news source.

While there has been some controversy surrounding PSA testing, many groups, such as the American Cancer Society, say that it is still the most effective means for detecting prostate problems.