Prostate Cancer: Screening
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will introduce age-related universal testing for prostate cancer.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne
Screening for prostate cancer is currently not recommended in the United Kingdom, due to the inaccuracy of the current best test, the Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) test.
A UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) review, looking at whether to offer screening for prostate cancer, is currently underway. This evidence review will cover the modelling of the clinical and cost effectiveness of several approaches to prostate cancer screening. This will include different potential ways of screening the whole population as well as 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.
Once the modelling and evidence review are complete, it will be considered by the UK NSC. Provided that no further revisions are required, the UK NSC plans to look at the findings towards the end of 2025. Further details of the UK NSC’s evidence review process are available at the following link:
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