Health: Prostate Cancer

Baroness Wall of New Barnet Excerpts

Monday 19th July 2010 Lords Chamber

[Earl Howe]

My Lords, there is quite a bit of ongoing work to devise such a test but I am advised that no reliable test exists at the moment. The PSA test is the best that we have. The noble Lord will know that the results of tests show that you have to screen about 1,400 men and treat 48 unnecessarily to save one life. It is not an easy equation.

[Baroness Wall of New Barnet]

My Lords—

[Lord Lloyd-Webber]

My Lords—

--- Later in debate ---

[Earl Howe]

My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Winston, is probably in a better position to advise the House on advances in that area of research. I can tell the House that the National Cancer Research Network, set up by the Department of Health in 2001, has brought about a tripling of the number of cancer patients entered into clinical trials. About 12 per cent of cancer patients in England enter NCRN trials, which is the highest per capita rate of cancer-trial participation in the world. The network currently supports about 51 prostate cancer studies, so there is no shortage of research going on.

[Baroness Wall of New Barnet]

My Lords, does the noble Lord agree that the recording and quality standards around prostate cancer ought to be considered by the Care Quality Commission? Does he also agree that it is a shame that the CQC has decided not to report at the end of this year on the state of the hospitals that it has been working with across the piece? My own hospital, Barnet and Chase Farm, is predicted to be excellent, but it has been told that the Care Quality Commission will not announce those positions at all.