Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department is planning to take steps to implement (a) a national screening programme and (b) other early diagnosis initiatives for prostate cancer.

Screening for prostate cancer is currently not recommended by the UK National Screening Committees (UK NSC). This is because of the inaccuracy of the current best test, the Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA). A PSA-based screening programme will harm some men as many would be diagnosed with a cancer that would not have caused them problems during their life. This would lead to additional tests and treatments which can also have harmful side effects, for instance sexual dysfunction and incontinence.

The UK NSC regularly reviews its recommendations and the evidence review for prostate cancer screening is underway, and plans to report within the UK NSC’s three-year work plan.

The evidence review includes modelling the clinical effectiveness and cost of several approaches to prostate cancer screening, including different potential ways of screening the whole population from 40 years of age onwards, and targeted screening aimed at groups of people identified as being at higher-than-average risk, such as black men or men with a family history of cancer.

We are also working with NHS England to support the National Health Service to meet the Faster Diagnosis Standard for cancer to be diagnosed or ruled out within 28 days from an urgent suspected cancer referral. This includes introducing best practice timed pathways for prostate cancer to streamline diagnostic pathways and speed up diagnoses.