Movember charity funds test to spare men unnecessary biopsies for prostate cancer

NHS patients with suspected prostate cancer are not routinely offered scans due to the high cost
PA
Ross Lydall @RossLydall11 December 2015

A new prostate cancer test that could limit the need for men to have biopsies is being trialled by London scientists.

A team at University College London and sister hospital UCLH is using funding of £450,000 from Prostate Cancer UK’s Movember charity appeal to decide who should undergo MRI scans.

Under NHS guidelines, patients with suspected prostate cancer are not routinely offered the scans due to the £315 cost.

Instead biopsies are performed, with a needle inserted into the prostate gland 12-16 times to search for evidence of a tumour. Patients require an anaesthetic and the procedure carries a risk of causing an infection. The new test aims to improve doctors’ ability to predict prostate cancer.

It is intended to reduce from 30 to 20 per cent the proportion of patients in a “no man’s land” between being almost certain and unlikely to have cancer.

Blood and urine tests costing £5 will search for “biomarkers” that indicate an aggressive tumour’s “signature”.

Those testing positive will be offered an MRI scan. The trial is due to start in January and will enrol 400 people.

Lead researcher Dr Hayley Whitaker said MRI scans were “a really important tool” for prostate cancer diagnosis, but added: “It needs to be used as efficiently as possible so that it remains affordable for the NHS.” She said as well as reducing numbers of men having unnecessary biopsies, it was hoped the new test would save the NHS money.

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men and kills more than 10,000 Britons a year. About 330,000 men in the UK suffer from it.

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