Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to improve (a) access to prostate cancer screening and (b) waiting times for prostate cancer treatment.

The Government understands that more needs to be done to improve outcomes for all patients with prostate cancer.

Currently, the UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) does not recommend a national prostate cancer screening programme due to the limitations of the current best test, the Prostate Specific Antigen test, which may lead to overdiagnosis and overtreatment of cancers that would not have caused harm during a man’s lifetime. However, the UK NSC is undertaking a comprehensive evidence review to assess six potential approaches to targeted screening for those at higher risk of developing prostate cancer. Recommendations will be published upon the conclusion of this review.

In addition, the Government has invested £16 million in the £42 million United Kingdom-wide TRANSFORM trial, led by Prostate Cancer UK, which aims to identify new ways of detecting prostate cancer at an earlier stage, including in men without symptoms.

Improving access to timely treatment and care remains a key priority for all cancer types, including prostate cancer. The forthcoming National Cancer Plan will set out further measures to improve cancer outcomes, including efforts to reduce waiting times and improve cancer treatment for all patients, including for prostate cancer.