Trial reportThe Journal of urology2018
Use of Digital Rectal Examination as an Adjunct to Prostate Specific Antigen in the Detection of Clinically Significant Prostate Cancer.
Trial report in The Journal of urology, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT03479359 (Learning Curve of Digital Rectal Examination for Prostate Cancer Among Internship), which is not on this map. Cited by 44 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Learning Curve of Digital Rectal Examination for Prostate Cancer Among Internship
Who cites it
44 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 89 citations in OpenAlex.
- The Benefits and Harms of Screening for Prostate Cancer in Adults Aged 18 Years and Older: A Systematic Review.Current oncology (Toronto, Ont.) · 2026Pooled it
- Quantitative Evaluation of Extramural Vascular Invasion of Rectal Cancer by Dynamic Contrast-Enhanced Magnetic Resonance Imaging.Contrast media & molecular imaging · 2022Trial
- Changes in PSA-Based Early Detection of Prostate Cancer over a 12-Year Period: Findings from the German KABOT Study.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Digital rectal exam vs. electronic "digitized" prostate exam.BMC urology · 2025Article
- Review
- Reprogrammed Lipid Metabolism-Associated Therapeutic Vulnerabilities in Prostate Cancer.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Review
- From conventional therapy to novel nano-based approaches. A focus on prostate cancer.Nanomedicine (London, England) · 2025Review
- Evaluating prostate cancer diagnostic methods: The role and relevance of digital rectal examination in modern era.Investigative and clinical urology · 2025Review
- Discovery of lncRNA-Based ProsRISK Score in Serum as Potential Biomarkers for Improved Accuracy of Prostate Cancer Detection.Journal of cellular and molecular medicine · 2025Article
- Personalized prostate biopsy protocols: enhancing cancer detection through tailored approaches-a narrative review.Translational andrology and urology · 2025Review
- Prostate-specific antigen, digital rectal examination, and prostate cancer detection: A study based on more than 7000 transrectal ultrasound-guided prostate biopsies in Ghana.Translational oncology · 2025Article
- Performance of PRIMARY Score based on PSMA-PET imaging in suspected prostate cancer patients with different PSA ranges: a retrospective study.American journal of nuclear medicine and molecular imaging · 2025Article
- Article
- Early detection efforts for colorectal and prostate cancer from the patient's perspective over the course of 12 years: results of the KABOT survey study.Primary health care research & development · 2024Article
- Article
- The Role of Digital Rectal Examination for Early Detection of Significant Prostate Cancer in the Era of Magnetic Resonance Imaging.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Article
- Digital Rectal Exam in Prostate Cancer Screening and Elevated PSA Work-up-Is there a role anymore?Current urology reports · 2024Review
- The Sensitivity and Specificity of Multiparametric Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Prostate-Specific Membrane Antigen Positron Emission Tomography/Computed Tomography for Predicting Seminal Vesicle Invasion in Clinically Significant Prostate Cancer: A Multicenter Retrospective Study.Journal of clinical medicine · 2024Article
- Diagnostic value of the abnormal digital rectal examination in the modern MRI-based prostate cancer diagnostic pathway.Journal of clinical urology · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors at 5 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
purposeGuidelines from the NCCN MATERIALS AND
methodsWe evaluated the records of the 35,350 men who underwent digital rectal examination in the screening arm of the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal and Ovarian Cancer Screening trial for the development of clinically significant prostate cancer (Gleason 7 or greater). Followup was 343,273 person-years. The primary outcome was the rate of clinically significant prostate cancer among men with vs without suspicious digital rectal examination. We performed competing risks regression to evaluate the interaction between time varying suspicious digital rectal examination and prostate specific antigen.
resultsA total of 1,713 clinically significant prostate cancers were detected with a 10-year cumulative incidence of 5.9% (95% CI 5.6-6.2). Higher risk was seen for suspicious vs nonsuspicious digital rectal examination. Increases in absolute risk were small and clinically irrelevant for normal (less than 2 ng/ml) prostate specific antigen (1.5% vs 0.7% risk of clinically significant prostate cancer at 10 years), clinically relevant for elevated (3 ng/ml or greater) prostate specific antigen (23.0% vs 13.7%) and modestly clinically relevant for equivocal (2 to 3 ng/ml) prostate specific antigen (6.5% vs 3.5%).
conclusionsDigital rectal examination demonstrated prognostic usefulness when prostate specific antigen was greater than 3 ng/ml, limited usefulness for less than 2 ng/ml and marginal usefulness for 2 to 3 ng/ml. These findings support the restriction of digital rectal examination to men with higher prostate specific antigen as a reflex test to improve specificity. It should not be used as a primary screening modality to improve sensitivity.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.