Trial for prostate cancer screening aims to cut deaths by 40 per cent
A £42 million research programme is to be launched to find the most effective way of screening men for prostate cancer, with the aim of reducing deaths in the UK from the disease by up to 40 per cent.
The Transform trial, launched by Prostate Cancer UK, has been hailed as “a pivotal moment in the history of prostate cancer research”. It aims to save thousands of lives in the UK each year as well as help men avoid harm from potentially unnecessary biopsies and treatment.
More than 44,000 men a year in England have prostate cancer diagnosed, and Cancer Research UK estimates that 12,000 lives are lost due to the condition every year.
Crucially, screening could spot the disease even when no symptoms are displayed and Transform will be the biggest trial in prostate cancer screening for two decades, and the only one at present. It has been developed with the backing of the NHS, the National Institute for Health and Care Research, and the government, which has committed itself to contributing £16 million.
Victoria Atkins, the health secretary, said: “Our hope is that this funding will help to save the lives of thousands more men through advanced screening methods that can catch prostate cancer as early as possible.”
The trial will compare various screening methods with diagnostic processes used in the NHS at present, including blood tests, physical examinations and biopsies. The first phase will involve about 12,500 men and assess prostate-specific antigen (PSA) blood tests, genetic testing and a faster version of the MRI scan — known as a Prostagram — to see which performs best. Initial results from the trial are expected in three years.
According to Prostate Cancer UK, which is funding the project, previous trials that used PSA blood tests and biopsies to screen for the disease showed the method prevented between 8 and 20 per cent of deaths, depending on screening regularity.
However, Transform has the potential to reduce the number of deaths from prostate cancer by 40 per cent, the charity said.
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Dr Matthew Hobbs, the director of research at Prostate Cancer UK, said: “Prostate cancer is the most common cancer without a screening programme, and it’s about time we changed that.
“We know that earlier diagnosis saves lives, but previous trials haven’t been able to prove that enough men would be saved using PSA tests alone, while they did show that these old screening methods caused significant unnecessary harm to men.
“We must now prove that there are better ways to find aggressive prostate cancer that will save even more lives while causing less harm.”
The trial’s second stage, involving up to 300,000 men, will test the most promising options from stage one of the trial. The team will follow up with patients for at least a decade after the trial to track how the screening affected their lives.
The researchers from Imperial College London, University College London, Queen Mary University of London, and the Institute of Cancer Research aim to make the trial as accessible as possible by recruiting patients through GP surgeries across the UK from next year.
One out of every ten men invited to join the screening trial will be black — given that black men have twice the likelihood of developing prostate cancer compared with men of other ethnicities. Eligible participants will be men aged 50 to 75, with black men able to participate from 45 to 75.