[Cancer of the prostate. Should men be screened, how to screen, when to screen?].

The individual screening of the general population can only be envisaged after the age of 50 years when the incidence of prostatic cancer increases significantly. Individual screening by PSA in an asymptomatic subject must only be proposed to men likely to benefit from curative treatment, i.e. between the ages of 50 and 70 years, and only after performing digital rectal examination. The combination of these two methods detects 54% of prostatic cancers in men over the age of 50 years. PSA assay can be made more reliable by comparison with age-dependent normal limits, PSA density compared to prostatic volume, rate of progression, and assay of the free and bound fractions.