Prostate Cancer: National Screening Programme

Lord Bailey of Paddington Excerpts

Thursday 27th February 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Merron (Lab)]

I agree about the need for clear messages, and I hope the noble and right reverend Lord will agree on the need for striving to do rather better.

[Lord Bailey of Paddington (Con)]

My Lords, in many deprived communities, and in the black community in particular, there is a very high incidence of prostate cancer. Before they get to the PSA test, what work is being done to educate communities even to be involved with seeking out that test in order to protect their health?

[Baroness Merron (Lab)]

The noble Lord is quite right to raise this. I am glad to say that the TRANSFORM trial I referred to will help to address this by ensuring that a significant proportion of participants are black men, who suffer disproportionately in this regard. That is really important, because previous trials have not included enough black men. The trial will address those disparities, and therefore the results that we get from that will be really important. It is always the case that working with specific communities to get the right message out is key to what we do.