On Wednesday, new guidelines for prostate cancer screening were released, stressing that doctors should inform patients about the pros and cons of using the PSA test for screening.

It suggested the end of mass prostate-screening programs at health fairs and a cut down in the utilization of digital rectal exams to locate tumors.

Durango Brooks, the Society's Director of Prostate and Colorectal Cancers, said, “The new guidelines give information on the discussions doctors and patients need to have before any blood is drawn. Screening should not take place in the absence of informed decision-making”.

American Cancer Society revised these guidelines after many studies advised that tumors identified by PSA screening are insignificant and that biopsies and treatment is more harmful than the tumors.

Dr. S. Adam Ramin, a Urological Oncology Specialist at St. John's Health Center in Santa Monica, said, "Although it is true that treatment will not necessarily save a lot of lives, it does prevent complications".

But other specialists are of the opinion that treatment itself can lead to problems such as urinary incontinence and impotence.

After skin cancer, prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men. Each year, around 192,000 men suffer from this cancer while 27,000 succumb to death.