The PDQ cancer information summaries are reviewed regularly and updated as new information becomes available. This section describes the latest changes made to this summary as of the date above.

Evidence of Harms ¹

Added text ² to state that screening has increased the incidence of prostate cancer, and there is evidence that not all patients diagnosed with prostate cancer as a consequence of screening are in immediate need of curative treatment, and death from other causes often occurs before screen detected, localized, and well-differentiated malignancies affect the survival of these patients.

Added text ³ to state that the effectiveness of active surveillance was retrospectively investigated in the European Randomized Study of Screening for Prostate Cancer trial.

Added text ⁴ to state that men with positive lymph nodes or distant metastases at the time of diagnosis were excluded from the analysis.

Added text ⁵ to state that the mean follow-up time for the 577 men in the retrospective assessment was 4.35 years.

Added text ⁶ to state that after 7.75 years, 50% of men had received treatment, and the median treatment-free survival was 2.5 years.

Added text ⁷ to state that the authors conclude that their data confirm prior studies' findings, that the favorable prognosis of many screen-detected prostate cancers may be actively followed, and curative treatment delayed, thereby delaying or avoiding the morbid consequences of radical therapy without diminishing survival.