New prostate cancer exam could lead to targeted screening

A new system to detect prostate cancer could help men avoid needless biopsies and pave the way for the introduction of screening.

The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust has introduced a new model, which gives patients a more thorough assessment to see if they have the disease before they continue with scans and treatment.

Currently, screening for prostate cancer is not recommended in the UK because the PSA test – a blood test that measures a protein produced by the prostate gland – is not accurate enough.

It is thought the rollout of universal screening could lead to men undergoing unnecessary treatment.

But technology used to confirm diagnosis has improved in recent years.

At the Royal Marsden, the new model has increased rates of detection from 27 per cent to 52 per cent.

Those with the disease that do not need treatment are filtered out earlier. The trust has also managed to cut the average time from referral to MRI at the hospital from nine days to just three, the Daily Telegraph reported.

Dr Netty Kinsella, nurse consultant in uro-oncology at the Marsden, told the newspaper that the new system was “fundamentally a triage optimisation model – directing high-risk patients through rapid MRI and biopsy, while sparing low-risk or inappropriate cases from unnecessary investigation.”

She added: “This both improves diagnostic accuracy and frees capacity for those most likely to benefit.”

This faster pathway involves patients going through physical examination, a detailed initial clinical history and urinary assessment before the MRI scan.

In addition, medics use AI-assisted imaging for a more precise diagnosis.

This way other conditions affecting the prostate and urine infections can be ruled out before having an MRI or a biopsy.

There are around 55,100 new prostate cancer cases in the UK every year, around 150 every day, according to Cancer Research UK. About 12,000 men die from prostate cancer every year.

Needing to wee urgently, struggling to wee, erectile dysfunction and finding blood in wee or semen are all symptoms of the disease.

Prostate cancer can develop when cells in the prostate start to grow in an uncontrolled way. In some cases the cancer grows too slowly to cause any problems and because of this, many men with the cancer will never need treatment, according to Prostate Cancer UK.

However, in other cases prostate cancer does grow quickly and is more likely to spread – meaning it is more likely to cause problems and will need treatment to stop it spreading.