Burden of Prostate Cancer, Prostate-specific Antigen Myths, and Optimal Prostate-specific Antigen Screening

Abstract

Summary Prostate cancer is the second most common cause of cancer death, especially in the Western world. Hence, efforts to screen detect it using serum prostate-specific antigen (PSA) came into vogue. The aim was to reduce the cancer-related mortality and morbidity by early detection. However, the practice did not improve the survival and led to more treatment-related morbidity for the patients. This chapter focuses on the disease burden and the myths related to prostate cancer screening using serum PSA.