Incidence of prostate cancer in Lithuania after introduction of the Early Prostate Cancer Detection Programme

Abstract

In Lithuania, prostate-specific antigen (PSA) testing is offered to healthy asymptomatic men as a screening test in the population-based Early Prostate Cancer Detection Programme (EPCDP). The aim of this study was to analyse the incidence of prostate cancer before and after introduction of the EPCDP in Lithuania. Prostate cancer incidence and mortality data from the Lithuanian Cancer Registry were analysed for the period 1990-2008. Age-specific incidence and mortality data were adjusted to the European Standard Population. There have been extraordinary changes in the incidence of prostate cancer in Lithuania following introduction of the EPCDP, and there is strong evidence that these changes are the result of increased detection rates, especially in men of screening age. Further observation of changes in prostate cancer incidence and mortality in Lithuania may help to determine the extent to which PSA testing at the population level influences incidence and mortality in the general population.