Men’s health charity calls on next Prime Minister to implement national screening programme for prostate cancer

Urologist says Jeremy Clarkson’s diagnosis “exemplifies what is wrong with the UK’s approach to prostate cancer”

The founder of a men’s health charity is calling on the next Prime Minister to end the “outdated and confusing” guidance on prostate cancer testing.

Retired urologist Prof Chris Booth, Founder and Chairman of men’s health charity CHAPS, has said the UK’s lack of a national prostate cancer screening programme has led to the UK having a higher mortality rate than other European countries.

Prof Booth said the situation with Jeremy Clarkson “exemplifies what is wrong with the UK’s approach to prostate cancer screening and why we have comparatively poor prostate cancer cure rates.”

CHAPS has now carried out PSA testing for around 12,000 men across the UK. According to the charity’s data, approximately eight per cent receive abnormal results requiring further investigation.

However, Prof Booth said only around half of those men are subsequently referred to specialists by their GP.

“Prostate cancer is now the most common cancer in the UK and yet it remains the only major cancer without a national screening programme.”

“I believe we already have the framework needed to establish a national prostate cancer screening programme within three years,” he said.

“If we are serious about improving survival rates and early diagnosis, we need to stop delaying and get on with delivering.

“With a new prime minister soon to take office, one of his first steps should be to sideline, if not scrap, the NSC and its impractical recommendations.

“I hope the additional awareness which Jeremy Clarkson has brought to this situation – a man who appears to fall outside the NSC’s protocols for screening and yet developed aggressive prostate cancer, means we can start to address the appalling inequity in dealing with our commonest cancer and the only one for which no screening programme exists.”

“The current approach to prostate cancer diagnosis lags significantly behind other major cancers because there is no national screening system in place,” he said.

“Thankfully Mr Clarkson’s aggressive prostate cancer was caught at an early stage thanks to a private medical screening, but that is not the case for many men.

“If there were a national screening programme there is every likelihood that prostate cancer can be caught early with virtually 100% guarantee of cure.”

Prostate Cancer (PCa) is the most common UK cancer with a death rate that is still rising. Around 63,000 new cases of prostate cancer are diagnosed each year in the UK, resulting in 13,000 deaths annually. Of those, 49% are diagnosed at a late stage (stage 3 or 4).

The UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) recommends targeted screening for men aged 45–61 with a BRCA2 gene change and a relevant family history.

Prof Booth says this decision “flies in the face of all the latest evidence that the benefits of screening clearly outweigh the harms.”

“Our mortality rate in this country is high because we have no clear, coherent early detection programme or even good guidance for GPs,” he added.

“The current guidance is outdated and confusing because there are multiple national and local guidelines.

“GPs are not specifically trained or incentivised to screen for prostate cancer; they are, by definition, generalists.

“By leaving it in the hands of primary care, the national screening committee and DHSC have left a vacuum which is being filled by inappropriate tests without safe guidance.

“Even if the TRANSFORM trial, much hyped by Prostate Cancer UK, succeeds, which is not guaranteed, it will not deliver a useful outcome within a reasonable timeframe and may well be outdated by advances in clinical practice.”

Prof Booth believes introducing a nationwide programme could dramatically improve outcomes while also reducing pressure on overstretched GP services

“Why we cannot implement a PSA/MRI pathway on a pragmatic local basis escapes me.

“It’s what we are doing on a major scale in Europe and with good results. The status quo in the UK is not acceptable.”