Introduction. Today, the problem of screening for prostate cancer is not completely solved. Scientific experiments have not allowed to formulate a general concept due to the fact that the screening procedure is accompanied with such factors as hyperdiagnostics, hypertreatment and high economic losses.

Thus, a population study “Novokhopyorsk”, which was aimed at prostate cancer research, was launched in 2013 by NA Lopatkin Research Institute of urology and Interventional Radiology with support from Voronezh Health Department, Voronezh Regional clinical hospital №1 and Burdenko Voronezh State Medical University. The study was conducted in collaboration with the Erasmus Medical Center (Rotterdam, the Netherlands). 

Aim of the study. Active detection of prostate diseases in a population of men aged more than 45 years.

Materials and methods. The study comprised 4500 men from Novokhopyorsky District (Voronezh region) and was performed in a stage-by-stage manner. The first stage was performed by primary care physicians and included the International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS) survey, body mass index calculation and medical history-taking. The second stage was performed by urologists and included determination of blood level of prostate-specific antigen (PSA), digital rectal examination (DRE), transrectal ultrasonography, uroflowmetry and 12-core transrectal biopsy of the prostate.

Results. 3105 men have fully undergone the examination. In 5.3% of the patients, PSA level was higher than 4 ng/ml, in 74.4% of this cases, PSA level was within the “gray zone”. In 8% of the patients, prostate volume was more than 30 cm3; in 0.6% of the patients, this parameter was more than 50 cm3. Throughout the study, 70 biopsies of the prostate were conducted which have verified prostate cancer in 45 patients (64.2%). The study is underway. The results obtained 2 years after the beginning of the study are being analyzed.

Authors declare lack of the possible conflicts of interests.