Prostate cancer will affect around one in eight men over their lifetime. While it’s the most common cancer in men, catching it early can make it highly treatable—and often curable.
Even though the 10-year survival rate after diagnosis is close to 100 percent in many cases—largely due to earlier detection and improved treatment—more than 35,000 Americans still die with prostate cancer each year.
Now, long-running research indicates men may be able to significantly cut their chances of dying from the disease by taking a straightforward step that many avoid or delay, sometimes with serious consequences.
The European Study of Prostate Cancer Screening (ESPCS) has tracked outcomes across more than 70,000 cases since launching in 1993, following thousands of men diagnosed with prostate cancer to understand how screening impacts long-term health.
In the multi-decade study covering eight countries, researchers evaluated men aged 55 to 69. Their results pointed to one key action that can sharply reduce the risk of prostate cancer death: attending screening appointments.
Remarkably, the data suggested this single choice reduced participants’ risk of dying from prostate cancer by 45 percent.
The conclusion was shaped in part by the outcomes of the many participants—about one in six—who did what a lot of older men do: skipped or didn’t attend scheduled prostate cancer screenings.
More broadly, the study also reported that screening programmes overall can reduce a population’s risk of dying from prostate cancer by about 20 percent.
Scientists at the Erasmus MC Cancer Institute at the University Medical Center Rotterdam found a strong association between missing screenings and a higher likelihood of death from the disease.
When researchers compared results with a control group of men who were not invited to screenings, they found non-attendees had a 39 percent higher risk of dying from prostate cancer. Meanwhile, men who did attend were 23 percent less likely to die from it.
Looking deeper into why this might happen, study lead author Renée Leenen MD said: “It may be that men who opted not to attend a screening appointment are care avoiders, meaning they’re less likely to engage in healthy behaviours and preventative care in general.
“This is the opposite behaviour of people who are perhaps more health conscious and are more likely to attend a screening appointment.”
She also emphasized the need to better understand what drives non-attendance, adding: “We need to better understand who these men are, why they choose not to attend appointments, and how to motivate them.
“This will help us to design population-based prostate cancer screening programmes that encourage higher rates of informed participation.
“Tackling attendance rates in this way could be a big factor in the long-term success of a national prostate screening programme.”