Prostate cancer screening not expected to be made widely available in UK | Prostate cancer
Prostate cancer screening will not be routinely available for the vast majority of men in the UK, according to expected recommendations from a panel of expert government health advisers.
The UK national screening committee is expected to recommend screening only for men aged 45 to 61 with the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genetic variants.
Only a few thousand men across the UK are expected to be eligible for screening; About 1 in 260 men is believed to have one of the faulty gene variants.
There is currently no population-wide screening program for prostate cancer in the UK. However, all men over the age of 50 can request a PSA test to check if they have prostate cancer.
These men and those in high-risk groups, including black men and those with a family history of cancer, can talk to their doctors about the pros and cons of getting tested.
Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer in the UK after breast cancer, with around 55,300 new diagnoses and 12,200 deaths each year. Many charities are running targeted screening campaigns against groups of men most at risk.
More details coming soon…
