After falling for two decades, the death rate for prostate cancer has stopped decreasing and the incidence of advanced disease is rising, researchers said Tuesday.

The unwelcome trends roughly coincide with a decline in screening for the disease, the study showed. But the authors say it isn’t clear whether reduced screening is responsible.

‘‘We can’t say what triggered the change,’’ said Serban Negoita, a data expert at the National Cancer Institute cancer surveillance program and lead author of the report. He added that the report did not try to determine cause and effect and that cancer incidence and death can be affected by many factors.

Nevertheless, the new data immediately reignited long-running arguments over the use of screening through prostate-specific antigen, or PSA, tests. In 2012, a federal advisory committee discouraged routine use of PSA tests for all men, saying too many men were being harmed by aggressive treatment for early-stage malignancies.

But earlier this month, the task force revised its stance to say that men ages 55 to 69 should make individual decisions on screening after talking to their doctors.

Washington Post