Many of the constituents who have written to me with their concerns about prostate cancer screening have shared their personal experiences and I am grateful to them for taking the time to do so. I would like to offer my deepest sympathy to those who have lost their loved ones and my best wishes to the men who have been diagnosed and are now undergoing treatment or, thankfully, have recovered.
Despite prostate cancer being the most common cancer among men in the UK, only half of prostate cancers are still diagnosed at stages 1 and 2, well short of the 75 per cent target set out in the NHS Long Term Plan. Raising awareness of prostate cancer is absolutely key to driving earlier diagnosis and increasing survival rates, particularly for men at higher risk, such as black men and those with a family history of prostate cancer; as co-chair of the Men and Boys All Party Parliamentary Group, I am always keen to do what I can to bring attention to men’s health issues and was pleased to lend my support to Bayer’s campaign to tackle inequalities in prostate cancer earlier this year.
I know there is a particular challenge with diagnosing men who have no symptoms during the early stages of prostate cancer so I appreciate the concern you and Prostate Cancer Research have raised about the current priority given to screening men at greater risk of prostate cancer. I am very supportive of Prostate Cancer UK's campaign to change NHS guidance so that men at greater risk of prostate cancer are proactively told by GPs about Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) testing.
As you will know, during the last review of the PSA test in November 2020, the NSC did not recommend systematic population PSA screening in men over the age of 50 because the test is not accurate enough to detect prostate cancer that needs treatment. The NSC also found that the PSA test could also produce false negatives while missing other forms of cancer, meaning that men may have to undergo unnecessary tests or treatment.
While every man has the right to have a PSA test over the age of 50, based on evidence collected from the consultation and subsequent review, the NSC concluded in 2020 that no routine PSA tests should be conducted amongst men of this age.
However, the NSC is currently reviewing the clinical effectiveness and cost of several approaches to prostate cancer screening, and will consider the findings towards the end of 2025. My understanding is that the review will explore different potential ways of screening the whole population and targeted screening aimed at groups of people identified as being at higher-than-average risk, such as black men or men with a family history of cancer.
On research, I strongly welcome that the last Government partnered with Prostate Cancer UK to fund a prostate cancer screening trial - TRANSFORM - that will use innovative screening methods like an MRI scan to detect prostate cancer and develop more evidence around the effectiveness of screening.
I call on the Labour Government to continue supporting this trial, which offers the potential to identify better ways of diagnosing prostate cancer and save the lives of thousands of men each year. I am grateful to Sir Chris Hoy who has been so instrumental in shining a light on this issue and calling for further screening and I hope the Labour Government listens to him and other men in a similar situation.
I am always interested in having the opportunity to find out more about the results of new research and, to that end, I have added the #ProactiveForYourProstate event on the 14th October to my Westminster diary and, subject to diary pressures and other Parliamentary commitments, will be pleased to attend as your MP.
Thank you again for to those constituents for taking the time to contact me and bring this event to my attention. I am grateful to you for sharing your views and your personal experiences with me. Please be assured I will continue to do all I can to bring greater attention to the issues men are facing around prostate cancer and tackle inequalities in outcomes.
