A new study has suggested that the prostate specific antigen (PSA) screening has declined by nearly 28% since the US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) in 2011 recommended against routine PSA testing.

The new analysis, published online on September 22 in the Journal of Urology, showed that the diagnosis of low, intermediate, and high-risk prostate cancer declined significantly during the same period. But they found a change in the new diagnoses of non-localized disease.

Lead author Daniel A. Barocas, MD, MPH, of the Department of Urologic Surgery, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, said it is not at all surprising that new diagnoses of non-localized disease have remained the same.

“Our data go to 2012, so it's really only a year since the guideline was issued. I would have not expected to see a change at this point in time”, he said.

In October 2011, the USPSTF recommended against routine screening for prostate cancer using the PSA test. Prior to this, the USPSTF had already recommended against routine PSA screening in men older than 75 years, but the new guidelines extended it to all men.

PSA was given a ‘D’ rating, which means that there is a moderate or high certainty that the service has no benefit or that the harms outweigh the benefits.

Dr Barocas told Medscape Medical News that some of the effects of this guideline can be beneficial in terms of reducing harms related to over diagnosis and overtreatment.

Some earlier conducted studies have suggested that higher-risk disease could be on the increase because of the declining screening.