The first men will today be invited to join a ‘game-changing’ prostate cancer screening trial that will revolutionise care and save thousands of lives a year in the UK.
Researchers will compare combinations of the most promising techniques so the NHS can adopt the most effective approach and make ‘earlier, safer and more effective’ diagnoses.
Over 300,000 men will be recruited to the £42million Transform project, which is the biggest prostate cancer screening trial in over two decades.
The results will help shape a potential national screening programme for the disease, which affects 63,000 men a year nationwide and kills 12,000.
Health secretary Wes Streeting last night said the launch of the trial ‘marks a turning point’, with the prospect of more patients being diagnosed early when the disease is easier to treat and survival chances are higher.
Around 16,000 men will be recruited for the first stage, which will pitch a mix of PSA blood tests, genetic spit tests and fast MRI scans against the current NHS diagnostic pathway.
The approaches that prove most effective will then be tested in a much larger group of up to 300,000 men.
Patients aged between 50 and 74 – or 45 and 74 for higher risk groups – will be invited directly by their GP, so the trial mirrors how a future screening programme would operate.
The first testing will be at the InHealth community diagnostic centre in Ealing, with more set to enroll across the UK.
It comes as the Daily Mail is campaigning to end needless prostate cancer deaths and for a national prostate cancer screening programme, initially for high risk men, such as those who are black, have a family history of the disease or particular genetic mutations.
The UK National Screening Committee, which advises the government on which screening programmes to offer, is currently considering recent developments around prostate cancer diagnosis and is due to report its findings later this year.
A major study last month found screening men for prostate cancer slashes their risk of dying from the disease by 13 per cent, with one such death prevented for every 456 men checked.
However, Transform goes beyond existing evidence, testing new ways to diagnose the disease that could find the cancers that today’s methods miss.
It will also quickly produce new information about the tests currently used.
If the NSC decides there is insufficient evidence to recommend screening now, these early results could help shift the evidence in favour of screening in as little as two years, researchers say.
The massive scale of Transform will also allow the creation of the biggest ever bank of prostate cancer samples, images and data to power the development of new tests and treatments for decades to come.
Hashim Ahmed, the trial’s chief investigator and professor of urology at Imperial College London, said: ‘Transform is truly game-changing.
‘As the biggest and most ambitious trial I’ve ever been part of, the start of recruitment today marks a pivotal step towards getting the results men urgently need to make prostate cancer diagnosis safe and more effective so that we can unlock the potential of prostate cancer screening in the UK.
‘Combining our world-class team of UK researchers, the latest screening techniques like fast MRI scans, PSA blood tests and genetic tests, we can find the best way to screen men for prostate cancer – minimising late diagnosis, saving more lives and doing so with fewer harms.
‘Importantly, we’ve designed the study so that we can evaluate promising new tests as soon as they’re developed.’
Health secretary Wes Streeting said: ‘Prostate cancer is one of the biggest killers of men in the UK.
‘Devastatingly, around one in eight will get it and that risk is doubled in Black men.
‘But today marks a turning point for prostate cancer care in this country, as the first men are invited to take part in this game-changing trial.
‘When the UK National Screening Committee share their initial findings on screening for prostate cancer, I will look carefully at their recommendations as I am determined to bring about genuine change.’
Laura Kerby, chief executive of Prostate Cancer UK, which part-funded the study, said: ‘The future of prostate cancer screening starts today.
‘It’s incredible to see the launch of this once-in-a-generation trial that so many people have worked to make possible, from our scientists to our amazing supporters raising funds.
‘Now we need the public to stand up and be part of it.
‘The men signing up for the study, and the people who donate to keep it running, will have the power to help save thousands of lives each year in the UK and even hundreds of thousands globally.'
Professor Lucy Chappell, chief scientific adviser at the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and chief executive officer of the National Institute for Health and Care Research, said: ‘The start of recruitment for the Transform trial marks a major milestone in prostate cancer research.’
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