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Digital Rectal Exam and Prostate Cancer Screening

Principal Investigator
Name
Joshua Halpern
Degrees
MD
Institution
Weill Cornell Medical College
Position Title
Student
Email
About this CDAS Project
Study
PLCO (Learn more about this study)
Project ID
PLCO-181
Initial CDAS Request Approval
Nov 30, 2015
Title
Digital Rectal Exam and Prostate Cancer Screening
Summary
The proposed study aims to evaluate the role of digital rectal exam (DRE) as a predictor of prostate cancer-specific outcomes in the PLCO trial. While a great deal of literature has focused on the PSA component of prostate cancer screening in the trial, there has been minimal analysis of DRE findings. The proposed study aims to evaluate the pathological and survival outcomes of men with a suspicious DRE during routine screening to determine whether these outcomes differ from those with a normal DRE.
Aims

1. Identify patients within the screening arm of the PLCO trial who were found to have a suspicious DRE on exam at any screening encounter during the trial period.
2. Primary Objective and Outcome: Compare the prostate cancer-specific survival of those with suspicious vs non-suspicious DRE.
3. Secondary Objectives and Outcomes: Compare rates of cancer detection and high grade cancer between the two groups.

Collaborators

Dr. Karla Ballman, Chief of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, Weill Cornell Medical College
Dr. Jim Hu, Professor of Urology, Weill Cornell Medical College

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