Industry News

GP practices have started sending invitation letters to men, marking the launch of the biggest prostate cancer trial the country has seen in decades. The £42 million Transform study is funded by Prostate Cancer UK and the National Institute for Health and Care Research.

The trial will invite men aged 50 to 74, with a lower starting age of 45 for Black men, who face roughly double the risk of developing and dying from prostate cancer compared with white men. People cannot volunteer for the trial directly, but those who receive a letter are being strongly encouraged to take part. Researchers hope to improve accuracy by combining rapid MRI scans with traditional PSA blood tests, which can often be unreliable. The study will also look at DNA-based saliva tests to see whether they can provide clearer results than PSA alone.

Experts involved in the trial say current methods fail to identify enough dangerous cancers and sometimes lead to unnecessary treatment. Many men diagnosed late lose the chance of early intervention, while others suffer side effects such as impotence or incontinence from treatments they may not have needed. The trial’s leaders hope the new multimethod approach will reduce both missed cancers and avoidable harm.

The article also highlights the experience of Danny Burkey, a 60-year-old man from West Yorkshire whose prostate cancer was diagnosed only after it had already spread. He believes a national screening programme could prevent thousands of men each year from facing similar outcomes.

The launch of Transform comes just ahead of a decision by the National Screening Committee on whether to recommend nationwide screening, something it has previously rejected due to concerns about risks outweighing benefits. Early results from the trial are expected in about two years, after which the study could expand to include as many as 300,000 men across the UK.

READ ORIGINAL ARTICLE HERE