The economic and workload impact of 'backdoor' prostate-specific antigen screening on the UK National Health Service: a single-centre experience.

Objective: To determine the economic burden and additional cost on one hospital within the UK National Health Service secondary to prostate-specific antigen screening by a private recruitment company for a clinical drug trial.

Patients And Methods: Data were reviewed from all patients who were excluded from the trial and referred across by the recruitment company between May 2004 and April 2005. The additional cost for all their investigation and treatment was calculated.