New prostate cancer screening trial could save thousands of lives
A new trial to gather evidence on screening methods to detect prostate cancer is set to be led by researchers at Imperial College London, working alongside UCL, Queen Mary University of London and the Institute of Cancer Research.
The £42million TRANSFORM screening trial, backed by charity Prostate Cancer UK, aims to find the best way to screen for prostate cancer and double the number of lives it could save.
Previous trials using PSA blood tests and biopsies have shown that it is possible to prevent between 8% and 20% of prostate cancer deaths depending on how regularly patients are screened. But healthy people can potentially be harmed by this approach.
Currently, there are more than 12,000 prostate cancer deaths in the UK alone, and this could mean thousands of lives saved each year in the UK.
TRANSFORM will bring together leading prostate cancer researchers to test new approaches that have the potential to more than double the impact of screening, and ultimately reduce prostate cancer deaths by up to 40%.
Source: Imperial College, 1 May 2024