NHS guidance on prostate cancer tests slammed for being ‘outdated’ and costing thousands of lives each year

NHS prostate cancer test guidance is ‘outdated’ and costs thousands of lives each year, experts say.

Studies show new methods of diagnosis have slashed the risk of harm from unnecessary biopsies and cut deaths.

Charity Prostate Cancer UK says this should end the debate over expansion of the prostate-specific antigen blood test (PSA) which screens for the disease. 

It wants GPs to be able to speak proactively to men who are most at risk of getting prostate cancer and offer them the PSA test. 

Currently, many of the 52,000 yearly cases are being discovered after the cancer has spread, when treatment options are limited.

Studies show new methods of diagnosis have slashed the risk of harm from unnecessary biopsies and cut deaths

Now trials have found that PSA testing does reduce the number of men who die from prostate cancer

Now trials have found that PSA testing does reduce the number of men who die from prostate cancer. 

Two new techniques have been key to the reduction in harm – multiparametric MRI scans and transperineal guided biopsies. 

Research compared patients who were found to have elevated PSA levels who were then sent for a pre-biopsy MRI, followed by a biopsy if the scan showed abnormalities, with the former diagnosis route, which did not include the pre-biopsy MRI. 

Fewer men faced unnecessary biopsies and there was a 90 per cent drop in those who developed sepsis following a biopsy. 

MP Clive Efford, who was diagnosed with prostate cancer after a battle to get tested, said: ‘[This] makes it clear that this reluctance from my doctors was outdated. 

Prostate cancer diagnosis is safer and more effective now than it has ever been.’ The Mail’s End Needless Prostate Deaths campaign is raising awareness of the disease.