Oxfordshire men urged to act on prostate cancer as new screening trials launched
Prostate Cancer affects 1 in 8 men
Last updated 1st May 2024
Prostate Cancer UK has revealed it's trialling a new screening test to diagnose men with the disease more safely and accurately, in the hopes of double the number of lives saved.
Prostate Cancer affects one in eight men, with an average of more than 52,000 men diagnosed with the disease every year - making it the most common form of cancer WITHOUT a screening programme in the UK.
Instead, men need to come forward themselves and request a test.
But now, through the charity's trial programme, TRANSFORM, multiple methods of screening will be tested to compare with current processes, in the hopes of finding the safest and most accurate way to screen men for the disease.
Previous trials using PSA and biopsy to screen for prostate cancer have shown it is possible to prevent 8% to 20% of prostate cancer deaths depending on how regularly men are screened.
However, the new £42 million trial aims to refine the process and could more than double this impact and reduce prostate cancer deaths by up to 40%.
There are more than 12,000 deaths due to prostate cancer in the UK each year, meaning better screening could save thousands of lives both here and abroad.
Oxfordshire survivor urges men to act
Tim Scane is a prostate cancer survivor from Didcot and has welcomed the new trials.
After spotting a Facebook advert about Prostate Cancer UK's nationwide campaign with the NHS in February 2022, encouraging men to take the charity's risk checker tool, Tim decided to take the risk checker himself, which prompted him to visit his GP and he discovered he had prostate cancer.
Thankfully, Tim caught his cancer early and had successful surgery to remove his prostate in July 2022.
Tim stressed the importance catching the illness early.
"Prostate cancer isn't a rapid killer like some of the other cancers near pancreatic cancer, for instance, it. But nonetheless, if you've got prostate cancer, you need to catch it early. Otherwise it tends to bud off, as it were. You know, it's one of those cancers which disseminates around the body. So you need to catch it early. While it's still hasn't migrated."
Sanjiv Kanwar is Vice Chair of Oxfordshire Prostate Cancer Support Group.
As a prostate cancer survivor himself - and of Indian heritage - tells us more about the trial called TRANSFORM. Where 1 in 10 men will be from black and ethnic minority groups will hopefully take part. They're groups who are more at risk
TRANSFORM are looking at recruiting 12,500 men in the first stage and up to 300,000 men in the second stage.
"The black or associated ethnic groups, I think it's important that we raise the awareness of this through support groups through our GPS through any other kind of outlets that helps to demystify, going to a doctor to get screened, and take away the anxiety.
"Working in an informed way is much better than sticking your head in a sandpit and hoping that something never happens to you."