Statement: Government response to National Screening Committee Recommendation

Today the Government has responded to the National Screening Committee recommendation, bringing forward a welcome package of new measures to increase access to early diagnosis for Black men and to build evidence towards wider prostate cancer screening.

It remains deeply disappointing that targeted screening will not be available for further years. But this package, including £20 million of further funding for research and treatment, is a step forward and a more humane response to those of us who know we have higher risk.

All Black men aged 45-74 will now be invited to participate in the TRANSFORM trial if they haven’t had a prostate test in the last 5 years. It is also very welcome that the screening model will be kept open, so that emerging evidence can be included, and we now need TRANSFORM to progress as rapidly as possible, to build a stronger evidence base for wider screening access. GP guidance will be updated and clarified, as the APPG has called for. And £2.8 million will be invested to expand access to less invasive focal therapy treatments.

We have much further to go. The APPG on Prostate Cancer will continue to press for change and will look at how to implement screening for those with a BRCA2 genetic variant quickly and effectively.