EXPERTS have called on life-saving prostate cancer checks to be offered to men at higher risk of the disease, which kills 12,000 a year.
A major report by Prostate Cancer Research suggests the NHS could offer targeted prostate cancer checks at just £18 per patient.
Prostate cancer is the most common cancer affecting men and kills 12,000 in the UK each year[/caption]
Under the proposed screening programme, Black men and those with a family history of prostate cancer between the ages of 45-69 would be assessed with MRI scans, blood tests and a biopsy.
According to the charity, the targeted programme would require only five more MRI scanners and 75 extra staff – challenging beliefs that the NHS can’t cope with the demand of offering routine checks.
The cost of establishing a screening programme for men at higher risk of prostate cancer would be “modest”, Prostate Cancer Research argued.
Offering eligible groups prostate cancer checks would cost the NHS an extra £25 million a year – just 0.01 per cent of the UK’s annual NHS budget – its analysis suggested.
According to the charity, this works out to about £18 per patient – similar to bowel and breast cancer screening.
“Compared with the scale of the benefits, these demands are minimal,” report authors wrote.
Prostate Cancer Research assumed that 20 per cent of the 1.3 million eligible men in the UK would be invited annually, 72 per cent of whom would take up the offer for checks.
Oliver Kemp MBE, chief executive of Prostate Cancer Research, stated: “Our report proves without doubt that a targeted screening programme can and should be implemented now.
“The current system, which relies on men to come forward, is failing thousands of families every single year.
“For an investment of just £18 per eligible person – a cost entirely comparable with breast and bowel cancer screening – we can give men at the highest risk a fighting chance of early diagnosis, when their cancer would be easiest to treat.
“The demands on our NHS are manageable when compared to the enormous, life-saving benefits.
“The evidence is clear; every year we delay costs more lives and tears more families apart.”
Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men in the UK, with more than 63,000 new cases reported annually.
It accounts for 26 per cent of all diagnosed male cancers, 14 per cent of male cancer deaths and 7 per cent of all cancer deaths in the UK, Prostate Cancer Research stated.
Prostate-specific antigen test, conceptual image[/caption]
In the UK, there are screening programmes in place for breast, bowel, lung and cervical cancer, but not for prostate cancer.
“It is the most common cancer in men, and while survival is high when the disease is caught early, too many men are still being diagnosed too late – especially those at highest risk,” Prostate Cancer Research wrote in its report.
“Black men are twice as likely to die from it. Men with a family history of the disease are also at higher risk.
“Access to timely diagnosis varies by region and socioeconomic background, with poorer outcomes for men in more deprived areas.
“Yet despite these dangers, there is still no screening programme.
“Instead, we rely on men to come forward and ask for a test – a system that is entrenching inequalities and failing to save lives.”
The UK National Screening Committee rejected proposals for implementing routine screening for prostate cancer in 2020.
The committee is currently reconsidering the question.
But reports emerged last week, suggesting it may stick to its 2020 decision and advise the Government to dismiss proposals for routine NHS prostate cancer checks due to cost-effectiveness concerns.
With the launch of its report, Prostate Cancer Research urged committee members to “fully consider” its “significant” new evidence in favour of a prostate cancer screening programme before finalising their decision.
One of the factors behind the National Screening Committee’s initial decision to dismiss proposals for screening was that prostate-specific antigen (PSA) tests used for detecting prostate conditions weren’t accurate enough to detect cancer.
High PSA levels in the blood may indicate a prostate condition, such as cancer.
But levels can also rise due to infections, leading to false positives.
Critics say this can result in unnecessary treatment and side effects, such as incontinence and erectile dysfunction.
However, Prostate Cancer Research said PSA tests would be offered alongside MRI scans and biopsies in the targeted screening programme, allowing for more accurate diagnosis.
“Reflex blood tests, AI-assisted MRI scans, polygenic risk scores, digital pathology and other emerging technologies are already being piloted – or should be considered – in the NHS,” report authors said.
“These promise even greater accuracy, fewer unnecessary procedures and the foundation for an eventual population-wide programme.”
Professor Nick James, consultant clinical oncologist at the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust and professor of prostate cancer research at the Institute of Cancer Research, argued: “Times have changed, and the historical concerns that held back screening are being overcome by a revolution in diagnostics.
“We now have the advanced tools – from smarter blood tests and precision MRI to safer biopsy techniques- that allow us to screen these high-risk groups effectively and safely.
“This isn’t about simply finding more cancers; it’s about finding the right cancers earlier.
“It is imperative that the National Screening Committee weighs this new evidence and recognises that we now have a clear, science-backed path to tackle these profound health inequalities.”
The report says a targeted prostate cancer screening programme is likely to increase demand for PSA blood tests, MRI scans and biopsies by 23 per cent and this would be “manageable” with a small increase in NHS staff.
The NHS could rent five MRI scanners a year at a cost of around £1 million each or use spare capacity in the private sector, which could provide fully-staffed mobile machines.
It is also possible to identify men who qualify for the checks, Prostate Cancer Research argued, as ethnicity and age are now routinely recorded on GP records and doctors can add notes about family history.
Ex-PM Rishi Sunak backed the charity’s campaign, stating: “This powerful report makes a compelling case for a targeted screening programme for prostate cancer.
“We must act now. Delay will cost lives.”
Calvin Bailey, chair of the Prostate Cancer All-Party Parliamentary Group added: “This is an important contribution to the National Screening Committee’s deliberations.
“What we must look at is a new type of targeted screening that recognises that risks aren’t equal across the population – Black men, men with family histories, and those with a genetic susceptibility need access to earlier diagnosis.
“With advances in clinical practice, we can now direct men into pathways tailored for them, minimising the risk of medical harm while saving lives.”
New figures from the National Prostate Cancer Audit (NPCA), showed that prostate cancer cases are continuing to rise across England, with more men than ever receiving surgery and radiotherapy.
In 2024, 58,218 men were diagnosed with prostate cancer in England, a 9 per cent increase on 2023, where 53,462 men were diagnosed, and up from 49,974 diagnoses in 2022.
The number of men receiving radical treatments is also climbing, the NPCA suggested.
In England, prostatectomies and radiotherapy increased by 13% in 2024 compared with 2023.
