Digital rectal examination is barrier to population-based prostate cancer screening

To determine whether use of the digital rectal examination (DRE) results in decreased participation in prostate cancer (PCa) screening, which, in turn, would result in lower detection. Population-based PCa screening includes prostate-specific antigen (PSA) measurement with or without a DRE. PSA and DRE screening provide greater sensitivity than PSA alone; however, the increased participation rate resulting from PSA-alone screening may result in a greater detection rate.

We performed a survey of 13,580 healthy men undergoing PSA-only population-based screening. In addition to the basic demographic information, the survey asked whether the participant would still be willing to participate in the screening if it included a DRE. We modeled the willingness to participate to assess the effect of PSA screening versus PSA and DRE screening on the basis of previously published data and our results.

The results of our study indicated that only 78% of men would participate in screening that included both DRE and PSA. Thus, 7800 men of a theoretical population of 10,000 would participate in a screening that included both DRE and PSA. The positive screen rate (PSA > or = 4.0 ng/mL and/or abnormal DRE) would then have been 2013, with 472 PCa cases and 1540 negative biopsies. In the PSA-alone arm, all 10,000 men would have agreed to participate, and the positive screen rate (PSA > or = 4.0 ng/mL) would have been 1480, with 499 PCa cases and 980 negative biopsies. The PSA-alone arm would thus have detected 27 more cancers and performed 560 fewer negative biopsies.

The results of our study have demonstrated that DRE is a significant barrier to participation in PCa screening. PSA plus DRE-based programs result in fewer cases of PCa detected, with a significant increase in negative biopsies. We, therefore, suggest that future mass screening efforts include only PSA determination and omit the DRE.