European Randomized Study of Screening for Prostate Cancer: achievements and presentation

The European Randomized Study of Screening for Prostate Cancer (ERSPC) had, from the beginning in 1993, not only the goal of confirming or excluding a decrease in prostate cancer mortality as a result of screening compared with a randomized control group, but also to contribute to related issues. The secondary goals of the ERSPC were specifically a contribution to an optimization of screening regimens, including the resulting sensitivities and specificities, the relation of screening tests to tumour aggressiveness, the exploration of lead-time and the determination of the optimal re-screening interval, and the optimal age distribution in future applications of prostate cancer screening to healthcare policies. In addition to that, the effect of screening, the diagnosis of prostate cancer and the treatment of the disease on quality of life are major issues of research within the study. Data are collected to evaluate cost-effectiveness and it will soon be possible to produce estimates. In many of these side projects, modelling using the Rotterdam based microsimulation or MISCAN system has become an important tool. Many if not all of these items have been at least in part covered or explored by national and international publications summarized in the list below. The ERSPC has become a major source of new knowledge that is publishable in the most prestigious oncological journals. More importantly, the ERSPC seems to be in a position to unravel many of the unknown and poorly understood issues surrounding the early detection of prostate cancer, which will be essential if screening for prostate cancer is ever to be introduced as a healthcare policy around the world. The ERSPC has established a website, which is regularly updated and gives access to the full text of most of the publications from the eight participating countries: . Readers of this collection of ERSPC related papers and of the publication list or website is that require further information should e-mail: or .