Analyzing the data from US National Institute on Aging's Baltimore Longitudinal Study - which conducted routine prostate specific antigen (PSA) blood tests on 727 prostate cancer patients and 122 men not suffering from prostrate cancer - the researchers found that the tests do not offer any meaningful advantage to men in the age group 75-80 years.

The findings of the study, led by the researchers of the Johns Hopkins University, and reported in the Journal of Urology, revealed that none of the elderly men observed died of prostate cancer if the PSA levels were below 3 nanograms per milliliter.

However, for men of any age, 3 nanograms per milliliter or higher PSA levels might need a continued screening, as a high PSA reading implies a "persistently growing" risk of prostate cancer, or even an aggressive prostate cancer, in the patients.

According to lead researcher, Dr. Edward Schaeffer, an assistant professor of Urology at Johns Hopkins, the results of this study could be of immense help in determining more specific age-based guidelines with regard to PSA screening.

Schaeffer said that though PSA testing can help in detecting prostate cancer early on, the discontinuation of needless PSA testing in some older men is quite safe, as it can cut screening costs, as well as health problems resulting from further tests or treatments.