Prostate Cancer: Clinical Trials
(asked on 14th September 2016) - View Source
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment his Department has made of the outcome of the ProtecT randomised trials into prostate cancer among men.
The National Institute for Health Research funded ProtecT trial (Prostate testing for cancer and Treatment) published two papers in the New England Journal of Medicine on 14 September 2016: Mortality and Clinical Outcomes at 10 years’ Follow-up in the ProtecT Trial and Patient Reported Outcomes Over Six Years in the ProtecT Prostate Cancer Trial. The papers showed that active surveillance is as effective as surgery and radiotherapy in terms of survival at 10 years for men whose prostate cancer was diagnosed by a prostate specific antigen test. The results of this study will provide men and their doctors with key information needed to manage localised prostate cancer, and will now be examined by appropriate bodies in England. For example, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) periodically reviews the need to update its guidance to reflect new clinical evidence and developments in technologies.
The NICE quality standard on prostate cancer already contains the statement ‘Men with low risk localised prostate cancer for whom radical prostatectomy or radical radiotherapy is suitable are also offered the option of active surveillance’. The quality standard can be found at this link: