The UK government has announced a major expansion of a prostate cancer screening trial, which will include all black men aged 45 to 74 who have not had a PSA test or MRI prostate scan in the past five years. The trial is investigating different ways to detect prostate cancer earlier and will broaden access to focal therapies, which are less invasive treatments that target prostate cancer.
The UK government has announced a major step towards the wider rollout of lifesaving prostate cancer screening checks. The health secretary, James Murray, has accepted a recommendation from his advisors to restrict access to a national screening programme to just a few thousand people.
However, the health secretary has committed to expanding a landmark trial so all black men aged 45 to 74 who have not had a PSA test or MRI prostate scan in the past five years can take part. Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in the UK, with 63,000 cases and 12,000 deaths each year.
The UK National Screening Committee sparked outrage last week when it told ministers only men with a rare genetic mutation and a family history of some cancers should be included in the screening programme. Campaigners have called on Mr Murray to overrule his advisors, saying the decision risks thousands of men being 'condemned to an avoidable death'.
The screening committee has issued draft guidance in November, which said testing should only be offered to around 30,000 men aged 45 to 61 with BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene mutations. This meant that black men and those with a family history would have been excluded from the screening programme.
Now the committee's final recommendation, published last week and accepted by Mr Murray today, says only men aged 45 to 61 who have particular BRCA2 variants combined with a family history of breast, ovarian, pancreatic, or prostate cancer should qualify for screening outside of the trial. An extra £18 million will be invested in the Transform trial and it will broaden access to focal therapies.
These are less invasive treatments that target prostate cancer, giving men greater choice about their options when they receive a new diagnosis. The charity Prostate Cancer Research has said that the decision is a 'deeply disappointing moment' for men and families across the country who know first-hand the devastating impact of prostate cancer.
The charity has called on the government to keep the screening model under review as new evidence emerges and to act on emerging evidence rather than wait years for the perfect dataset. The charity has also welcomed the additional funding for the Transform trial and the commitment to increase participation among Black men, who face double the risk of being diagnosed with prostate cancer and are more likely to die from the disease
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