Leeds man who had no symptoms of prostate cancer backs plans to develop national screening programme
It's hoped the multimillion pound project could reduce deaths from prostate cancer by 40%
Plans have been revealed to trial methods of screening men for prostate cancer in an attempt to save thousands of lives in the UK each year.
The £42 million ‘Transform’ project is being described as "a pivotal moment in the history of prostate cancer research" by experts.
Thousands of men every year are affected by the disease, which is the most common cancer in men, but there is currently no screening programme for it in the UK.
Andrew Coverdale from Leeds was diagnosed with prostate cancer in June 2019. He had no symptoms but was persuaded by his wife to visit to the GP for a PSA (Prostate Specific Antingen) blood test in 2018 which detected high PSA levels.
After sleepless nights and feeling stressed, Andrew asked for another test in late 2018 which prompted a long investigation before his diagnosis the following summer.
“It was so lucky when we did it when we did because otherwise it would have spread to various parts of my body, and in truth, I probably wouldn’t be here,” Andrew says.
“I had no symptoms at any point, didn’t feel poorly, had no reason to get the check done apart from my wife saying to me: ‘Andy, you should get it done.’
“This for men is the big one, and we do need something better than we have at the moment, and it does seem wrong that it’s down to individual men to push for something to get checked.
“It's the biggest cancer for men that has the mortality highest rate. Absolutely we need a national screening programme, something that is more accurate than what we’ve got at the moment and gets more men to do it.
“There are too many men out there that haven’t heard of prostate cancer.”
It is also hoped this research will help to avoid any harm from unnecessary biopsies and treatments.
It’s being backed by the NHS, the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) and the government, who have pledged to contribute £16 million.
The Transform trial will involve hundreds of thousands of men and will compare various screening tests to current NHS ones to look at the most effective way to screen for prostate cancer.
According to Prostate Cancer UK, 12,000 men every year will die from the disease and a public outcry from hundreds of thousands of men has been made for several years to do more to tackle this.
The charity says the Transform project has the potential to reduce deaths from prostate cancer by 40 per cent.
Dr Matthew Hobbs, director of research at Prostate Cancer UK, said: "Prostate cancer is the most common cancer without a screening programme and it's about time we changed that.
"We know that earlier diagnosis saves lives, but previous trials haven't been able to prove that enough men would be saved using PSA tests alone, while they did show that these old screening methods caused significant unnecessary harm to men.
"We must now prove that there are better ways to find aggressive prostate cancer that will save even more lives while causing less harm."