Prostate cancer screening trial to recruit thousands of men

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Fergus Walshmedical editor

Getty Gray-Haired Man Lying About To Enter An Mri Machine.

A major prostate cancer screening trial has been launched in the UK to find the best way to detect the disease.

The first letters were sent by GPs inviting men to join the study, the largest of its kind in decades.

The £42 million Transform trial is funded by Prostate Cancer UK and the National Institute for Health and Care Research.

Hashim Ahmed, chief investigator of the trial, said: “Transform is a real game-changer… the start of recruitment today marks a vital step in delivering the results men urgently need to make prostate cancer diagnosis safer and more effective so we can unlock the potential of prostate cancer screening in the UK.”

The trial will recruit men aged 50 to 74, with a lower age limit of 45 for black men, who have twice the risk of developing and dying from prostate cancer compared to white men.

It will not be possible to volunteer for the trial, but Prostate Cancer UK strongly encourages anyone who receives a letter to take part.

The trial will look at how rapid MRI scans of the prostate could be combined with prostate-specific antigen (PSA) blood tests to improve the accuracy of cancer diagnosis.

Currently, men over 50 can order a PSA test, which looks for abnormally high levels of the protein in the blood, but this is unreliable as it detects many prostate cancers that would never need treatment and misses others that do.

The trial will also use saliva tests, which extract DNA from saliva, to see if it is more accurate than PSA readings.

Matthew Hobbs, research director at Prostate Cancer UK, said current diagnostic methods do not find sufficiently aggressive cancers and cause too much damage.

“We hear from men who were diagnosed late, whose lives could have been saved if they had undergone tests or examinations earlier. We also hear from many men who have suffered incontinence or impotence due to the treatments they received,” Mr Hobbs said.

“Some of those men didn’t need those treatments, and that’s the harm we should try to prevent.”

‘If we want to prevent 12,000 men from dying prematurely each year, this is the obvious solution’

Danny Burkey, 60, from West Yorkshire, is terminally ill with prostate cancer. When he was diagnosed with his illness four years ago, it had already spread to his bones.

The former teacher and father of three told the BBC that if men had been offered regular screening from the age of 50, their disease could have been detected while it was still curable.

“I think a screening program would be a game-changer. If you want men to not be in the position I’m in, and if we want to stop 12,000 men dying prematurely every year, it’s the obvious solution.”

Ywaaaaaaqabaaacauwaow== | Stuff Unknown — Danny, 60, with his wife Jeanette, was diagnosed with prostate cancer four years ago, but it had already spread to his bones.

Danny Burkey Man And Woman Dressed In Blue Sitting At A Dining Table, Looking At The Camera. There Is A Crossword Puzzle Book And Pencil And Paper On The Table. Behind Them Is A Wooden Piece Of Furniture. — Danny, 60, with his wife Jeanette, was diagnosed with prostate cancer four years ago, but it had already spread to his bones.

The opening of the trial comes a week before the National Screening Committee (NSC), an expert body that advises the NHS, announces whether to recommend the introduction of screening for the disease, the most common cancer in men in the UK.

Previously, the NSC had concluded that the harms of the exam outweighed the benefits.

Initial results from the Transform trial will be received in around two years, after which it will be expanded to up to 300,000 men across the UK.