Michael Patrick Pignone, M.D., M.P.H., of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and colleagues conducted a randomized clinical in October 2011 in which men underwent a values clarification task and then chose the most important attribute for prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screening.

Men must consider how they value different potential outcomes to make good decisions about PSA screening, according to the study. The trial included 911 men (ages 50 to 70 years) from the United States and Australia who had average risk for prostate cancer.

"The participants who received the rating and ranking task were more likely to report reducing the chance of death from prostate cancer as being most important (54.4 percent) ... Further studies with more distal outcome measures are needed to determine the best method of values clarification, if any, for decisions such as whether to undergo screening with PSA."