The disease kills more men in Britain than any other cancer, with the exception of lung cancer. Each year 35,000 new cases are identified and there are around 10,000 deaths.

The European Randomised Study of Screening for Prostate Cancer (ERSPC), which looked at 182,000 men aged between 50 and 74, found that screening them for the disease could cut the number of deaths by 20 per cent.

If the trial's results were replicated it would mean up to 2,000 lives could be saved in the UK every year.

Any national programme could follow the pattern for that of breast cancer screening, which tests women between 50 and 70 and saves an estimated 1,400 lives a year.

Screening would involve men reaching middle age being asked to attend a local clinic every few years to have a blood test.

This would check for high levels of a protein called Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA), which increases in people who have a tumour.

If the results suggested prostate cancer, a biopsy would be taken and, if the cells appeared dangerous, the patient would undergo surgery or be monitored until intervention was appropriate.

However, the blood test has attracted criticism because the raised levels of PSA are not a perfectly reliable indicator of prostate cancer.

The side effects include erection problems and incontinence.

Despite the potential pitfalls, Health Minister Ann Keen announced the review and said the Government was "committed" to having a screening programme for the cancer "if and when screening and treatment techniques are sufficiently developed".

Mark Emberton, consultant urologist at University College Hospital London, said that the Government was right to study the findings of the research, which was presented at the annual European Association of Urology Conference in Stockholm, Sweden and published online in the New England Journal of Medicine, closely.

"It's interesting that this finding is positive, that it shows that screening saves lives, as many thought it would not. It is good that the Government is planning to look at its implications for policy, especially if we can reduce the side effects of treatment in the future.

"GPs should be prepared for more men coming forward in the light of this study and asking for a PSA test."

The announcement comes just a week after ministers ordered a review into the age that women are first invited for cervical cancer screening, following criticism over a recent raise from 20 to 25 sparked by the case of Jade Goody, the former Big Brother star.

In the House of Commons yesterday Gordon Brown said the Government would consider all the available medical evidence before deciding whether to extend smear tests for women under 25 in England.

Prostate cancer is most common in the over 55s and can be extremely slow growing, meaning that many men will die of another condition before their disease becomes life-threatening.

Many men are not keen to talk about the condition but actor Robert De Niro was diagnosed with it in 2003 which raised its profile. He was later said to have made a full recovery.

The results of a smaller study, the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian (PLCO) Cancer Screening Trial, carried out in America and involving 76,000 men, also published online in the NEJM, found that widespread screening using the PSA test made little or no difference to survival rates over an average of seven years.

David Connolly, a specialist registrar at Belfast City Hospital, who has carried out research on the PSA test, said there was still not enough evidence that the benefits of screening would outweigh its costs:

"The problem is that the PSA test does not identify which men are going to die from prostate cancer," he said.

"The introduction of widespread screening would be very costly financially, not to mention the amount of anxiety it would cause to men who find out they have the condition even though it would not trouble them over their life."

Professor Peter Johnson, Cancer Research UK's chief clinician, said: "For some men, detecting prostate cancer early through screening can be life saving while for others it will lead to unnecessary treatment and side effects like impotence and incontinence."

Mrs Keen added: "Any man contemplating having a PSA test or with symptoms of prostate cancer should speak to his GP who will be able to counsel him and provide him with support.