National Screening Committee recommendations on prostate cancer screening
New draft recommendations from the UK National Screening Committee advise that current evidence does not support prostate cancer screening for all men, due to concerns that the harms caused by screening outweigh the benefits. The Committee recommends that men aged between 45-61 with confirmed faults in BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes should be screened every two years. The NSC only recommends a screening programme if published peer-reviewed evidence shows that an end-to-end screening pathway would do more benefit than harm to the overall group of people who are invited. A 12-week consultation on the document has now opened.
The report has been issued as men across the UK receive the first invitations from GPs to join the £42m TRANSFORM trial, the biggest prostate cancer screening study in a generation. Funded by Prostate Cancer UK and the National Institute for Health and Care Research, TRANSFORM will involve hundreds of thousands of men, and will compare the most promising tests and provide definitive evidence about the best way to screen for prostate cancer. Because Black men have double the risk of other men, the trial is committed to ensuring that at least one in 10 of those invited to participate in the trial are Black men.
The NSC report notes that the Committee will collaborate with the Transform screening research trial team, to answer outstanding questions on screening effectiveness for black men and men with a family history as soon as trial data becomes available.
Co-lead of the TRANSFORM trial, WIPH Professor of Biostatistics and Clinical Trials, Rhian Gabe said: ‘The NSC recommendation to screen men with BRCA1/2 variant for prostate cancer is to be applauded. It now becomes more important than ever to provide evidence to inform policy regarding whole population screening in men and higher risk groups including Black men and those with a family history. The TRANSFORM trial, now underway, aims to provide the critical evidence needed on the best way to screen for prostate cancer.’