Health
Why not screening for prostate cancer is justified
Key Points
The debate on prostate cancer screening is life, the universe, and everything boiled down to one question — and the answer isn’t 42. Whether or not men should be routinely screened for prostate cancer seems simple enough to answer, but only on the face of it. As two position statements from the UK’s National Screening Committee show — one on multicancer detection tests (doi:10.1136/bmj-2026-089868),1 the other on surrogate outcomes (doi:10.1136/bmj-2026-629407)2 — screening decisions are...
The debate on prostate cancer screening is life, the universe, and everything boiled down to one question — and the answer isn’t 42. Whether or not men should be routinely screened for prostate cancer seems simple enough to answer, but only on the face of it. As two position statements from the UK’s National Screening Committee show — one on multicancer detection tests (doi:10.1136/bmj-2026-089868),1 the other on surrogate outcomes (doi:10.1136/bmj-2026-629407)2 — screening decisions are steeped in complexity.Albert Einstein is credited with saying, “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.” This is advice that medical professionals and journals are well advised to heed. Certainly, the screening committee has mastered it: you may not agree with the committee’s verdicts, but you can’t fault the detailed clarity of its explanations.The clamour for screening is everywhere. If you can test for it, you should screen for it. A missed or...