Worldwide, prostate cancer is the most common malignancy found in men. In the United States last year, more than 30,000 men died of the disease.

Yet when medical researchers such as Dr. Peter Collignon of the Canberra Hospital in Australia -- whose comments are seconded by renowned medical experts from across the globe -- refers to the "major international public health problem" associated with prostate cancer, he is not referring to the disease itself. Rather, he is drawing attention to the adverse effects related to the screening tests that seek to discover it, where surgical errors can result in the introduction of resistant infections into the prostate, bladder and bloodstream.

Men are dying from those screenings, in growing numbers, and in virtually every country where screenings are routine. And, tellingly, they are dying even when the results of their screenings show no presence of cancer.

Dr. Peter T. Scardino, surgery chief at New York's Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, calls the growing trend "an extremely worrisome problem." The chief of urology at a hospital in Germany calls it "a significant threat."

A study conducted by Dr. Robert Nam at a Toronto hospital concluded that more than four percent of 75,000 prostate-biopsied patients over a 10-year period who had negative test results had to return to the hospital for treatment within a month of their screenings. More than 70 percent of them had infections.

What is sometimes happening in needle biopsy tests is that the needle takes undetected and existing bacteria form the bowel into other areas. In an increasing number of cases, the bacteria are resistant to antibiotics.

"It's a shame," says Dr. Gilbert J. Wise of New York's Weill Cornell Medical Center. "You do something, there is no cancer, and they die of the procedure."

Men who are most at risk include those who have taken antibiotics within a year of their prostate procedure and those who either work in a medical facility or live with a person who does.

Related Resource: Bloomberg, "Prostate Exam Deaths from 'Superbugs' Spur Inquiry into Cancer Tests" May, 2011