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What is the role of digital rectal examination in men undergoing serial screening of serum PSA levels?

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From Nature Clinical Practice Urology

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Abstract

This Practice Point commentary discusses the study by Gosselaar et al. that reports the performance characteristics of digital rectal examination (DRE) in men from the Rotterdam cohort of the European Randomized Study of Screening for Prostate Cancer. The authors reported that the positive predictive value of DRE for detecting the presence of prostate cancer was 48.6% in the first round of screening, decreasing to 29.9% and 21.2% in the second and third rounds, respectively. Nevertheless, an abnormal DRE was associated with a significantly increased risk of very high-grade disease during all screening rounds, indicating that it provides useful additional prognostic information. This study adds to a considerable body of evidence supporting a role for DRE in early detection of prostate cancer.

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References

  1. Gosselaar C et al. (2008) The role of the digital rectal examination in subsequent screening visits in the European Randomized Study of Screening for Prostate Cancer (ERSPC), Rotterdam. Eur Urol 54: 581–588

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  2. Okotie OT et al. (2007) Characteristics of prostate cancer detected by digital rectal examination only. Urology 70: 1117–1120

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. S Loeb is a Resident in Urology at Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, Baltimore, MD, USA.,

    Stacy Loeb

  2. WJ Catalona is Professor of Urology and Director of the Clinical Prostate Cancer Program at Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, USA.,

    William J Catalona

Authors
  1. Stacy Loeb
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  2. William J Catalona
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to William J Catalona.

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Competing interests

WJ Catalona has received grant/research support and speakers' honoraria, and been a consultant for, Beckman Coulter Inc. and deCODE genetics Inc.

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Loeb, S., Catalona, W. What is the role of digital rectal examination in men undergoing serial screening of serum PSA levels?. Nat Rev Urol 6, 68–69 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/ncpuro1294

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ncpuro1294

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