Context

The beneficial role of prostate cancer screening and treatment has recently been called into question. The results of two recent trials have provided conflicting results with regard to the ability of prostate cancer screening to reduce prostate cancer-specific mortality.1 The Prostate Cancer Intervention versus Observation Trial (PIVOT) goes one step further by attempting to assess the efficacy of radical prostatectomy compared with observation, on overall and prostate cancer specific, survival in patients with localised prostate cancer. While there have been two trials conducted previously to address this issue, both took place prior to the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) era and they produced conflicting results.2 ,3