Health secretary James Murray will meet the chair of the UK National Screening Committee on Monday before deciding whether to follow its recommendation or overrule it. Charities, patients and MPs are calling on Mr Murray to show leadership and use his powers to defy the bombshell guidance.
Thousands of men risk being condemned to an avoidable death after government advisors rejected calls for a major prostate cancer screening programme . Health secretary James Murray will meet the chair of the UK National Screening Committee on Monday before deciding whether to follow its recommendation or overrule it.
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 The UK National Screening Committee has issued draft guidance in November, which said screening should only be offered to around 20,000 men aged 45 to 61 with BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene mutations.
However, the panel has now said even fewer men should receive routine checks than it initially proposed, following a public consultation and consideration of new evidence. The new recommendation is that 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.
This means as few as 3,000 men will be invited for screening, which will involve taking a blood test every two years to check for a marker of potential prostate cancer known as PSA. Charities, patients and MPs are calling on Mr Murray to show leadership and use his powers to defy the bombshell guidance.
They argue that expanding screening to a wider group could lead to over-diagnosis and over-treatment, exposing some men to a risk of impotence and incontinence when their tumour was unlikely to cause them issues in their lifetime. However, others argue that a mass screening programme could save thousands of men's lives and that the current decision is a step backwards, narrowing the recommendation to a smaller pool of eligible men.
The UK National Screening Committee has vowed to continue to update its modelling as new evidence becomes available, rather than waiting three years to reassess its decision as is typically the case. Prostate Cancer UK has expressed its 'deep disappointment' with the committee's recommendation and warned it is 'condemning thousands to preventable deaths while entrenching health inequalities for another generation'. Former prime minister Rishi Sunak has supported calls for a national prostate cancer screening programme targeted at high risk men.
The Daily Mail is among those campaigning to end needless prostate cancer deaths and for a national prostate cancer screening programme, initially targeted at high risk men, such as those who are black, have a family history of the disease or particular genetic mutations. Prostate Cancer Research has also expressed its 'profound disappointment' with the committee's recommendation and warned it is 'condemning thousands to preventable deaths while entrenching health inequalities for another generation'.
The charity's director of patient projects and influencing, David James, has said that the decision will feel like being left behind for men who are at highest risk of prostate cancer. He has also warned that the number of men affected by this recommendation is likely to be even smaller than the Committee had previously indicated. The Committee has said its model will be kept 'alive', which matters.
The Daily Mail is now calling on the government to update that model and revisit this decision before more men are diagnosed too late
Prostate Cancer Screening Programme UK National Screening Committee James Murray Prostate Cancer UK Prostate Cancer Research
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