Rishi Sunak says decision to limit prostate cancer screening is 'deeply disappointing'

The Richmond and Northallerton MP has repeatedly called for a targeted national screening programme in Parliament of the country’s most common form of cancer.

Yesterday, the UK National Screening Committee (UKNSC) made its final decision on this, concluding that only those people with high-risk genetic mutations should be tested every two years.

It said attempting to detect the disease using the prostate specific antigen (PSA) blood test is “likely to cause more harm than good”.

As a result, it is estimated that a “few thousand” men will be screened each year.

The UKNSC said the main harms of population screening “include incontinence and erectile dysfunction in men who do not need treatment” for the disease.

However, Mr Sunak told The Yorkshire Post: “This decision will be deeply disappointing to the thousands of brave men who have campaigned for a targeted screening programme to prevent more families from losing a father, a son or a brother before their time.

“For just 0.01 per cent of the NHS Budget we could have had a targeted screening programme that would have saved lives.

“The problem we have is that prostate cancer is too often caught too late, with devastating consequences for men and their families.

“Today, screening is more effective than it has ever been, but the model guiding the Committee's decision does not reflect these developments.

“Updating it is essential if we are serious about earlier diagnosis and preventing avoidable deaths.

“We must take this opportunity to save lives, reduce inequalities and bring prostate cancer screening into line with how the disease is diagnosed and treated today.”

Prof Sir Mike Richards, chairman of the UKNSC, told a briefing: “We absolutely recognise the strong support for prostate cancer screening amongst a large number of people, but also the very real harm that can be caused by the disease which patients, and indeed their families, experience.

“We do know that screening can reduce deaths from prostate cancer to a small extent, and it does not improve overall survival.”

He said that many men “will live full lives” without the disease causing harm and screening can “only help if it can separate out that harmful disease from the harmless disease”.

“Once a prostate cancer is found, we still can’t reliably tell which cancers need treatment and which do not,” Prof Richards said.

“There’s a spectrum there and the treatments available for prostate cancer can cause long-lasting harm.”