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Experts now recommend regular prostate cancer screening for all men ages 50 to 69 and earlier for higher-risk groups, according to new American Cancer Society (ACS) guidelines.

Until now, the ACS recommended that men make an informed decision with their doctors about whether to receive a prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test to assess their prostate cancer risk.

However, the new guidelines reflect updated data showing that the benefits of PSA testing outweigh the potential risk of false negatives or unnecessary treatment, ACS experts said.

Specifically, the ACS cited improvements in the way that doctors interpret and assess an elevated PSA reading, reducing the risk of treating prostate cancer that might not be life-threatening.

"PSA testing remains the cornerstone of detecting prostate cancer early, and we now have stronger evidence of its benefits," senior researcher Robert Smith said. He is the senior vice president of early cancer detection science at the ACS.

"We also have better approaches to catching lethal tumors while avoiding unnecessary tests for slow-growing cancers that may never need aggressive care," he added in a news release.

The guidelines now recommend that men 50 to 69 at average risk receive a PSA test every two years, according to a report published today in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians.

Black men and those with a strong family history of prostate cancer should start testing at age 45, the guidelines recommend.

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