Is it time to abandon the digital rectal examination? Lessons from the PLCO Cancer Screening Trial and peer-reviewed literature.

CONCLUSIONS: DRE screening in the setting of normal PSA captured an additional 2% of men with CSPC. This incremental gain suggests that routine DRE screening subjects a large number of men to invasive, potentially uncomfortable examinations for relatively minimal gain Key Limitations: Our conclusions are based on data derived from the PLCO study which has been criticized on the basis of inconsistent biopsies following positive screening tests, lack of end of study biopsies to determine population disease burden, and low numbers of black men. PMID: 27264113 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: Current Medical Research and Opinion - Category: Research Tags: Curr Med Res Opin Source Type: research