Prostate cancer often has no symptoms in its early stages, when it can be cured, but it can be detected by a blood test or a rectal examination.

Two large, decade-long studies in Europe and the United States trialled the use of these tests to screen men for the disease.

But the results, published overnight in The New England Journal of Medicine, suggest population screening may pose problems or be ineffective.

The European study of 182,000 men showed that the prostate specific antigen blood test -- known as the PSA test -- cut the rate of death from prostate cancer by 20 per cent but was linked with a high risk of overdiagnosis.

Treatments and procedures resulting from a misdiagnosis can have side effects such as infection, incontinence or impotence.

The US study of 76,700 men, which used the blood tests and rectal examinations, was unable to find a benefit in screening, as the rate of death from prostate cancer was similarly small among men who were tested and those who weren’t.

Cancer Council chief executive Professor Ian Olver sadi today he hoped the studies put an end to calls for population screening.

He said the focus should instead be on helping men understand the disease, which is the most common cancer in Australian men.

"We should now focus on informed choice in what is a very difficult decision for men, because of equivalent evidence,” he said.

"[The studies] probably tell us that the PSA is not going to become a screening test for prostate cancer. If anything, they are a very strong case for researching more effective tests."

One in nine Australian men develop prostate cancer in their lifetime. The disease kills almost 3000 men a year.