National campaign launches to end prostate cancer postcode lottery

Over 135,000 people have signed a petition to prioritise a national screening programme

The charity Prostate Cancer Research (PCR) has launched a national campaign, calling for a screening programme to improve survival rates and quality of life for men in the UK.

The ‘Proactive For Your Prostate’ campaign is calling for recent advances in prostate cancer diagnosis to be utilised at a national level and an end to health inequity for men.

A petition signed by over 135,000 people, to be delivered to Downing Street today, calls for urgent action from the government to implement a national screening programme for prostate cancer. It coincides with the launch of the charity’s new campaign, Proactive For Your Prostate, in an effort to address inequities in prostate cancer diagnosis and treatment.

The national screening programme would use the latest advances in prostate cancer diagnosis to ensure early detection and better outcomes for all men, regardless of their location.

Screening for prostate cancer is currently done through an ‘informed choice’ programme, rather than a universal screening programme used for breast and colon cancer. While a Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) test is available upon request for men over 50, the current programme relies on individual awareness and proactivity, leaving many at-risk men undiagnosed.

The latest evidence shows that previous risks of overdiagnosis and overtreatment using a screening programme based on PSA testing alone are diminishing due to recent changes in clinical practice.

Prostate cancer is responsible for 14% of all male cancer deaths and is the second leading cause of cancer deaths among men in the UK, with one in eight white men, one in four black men and one in 13 men of other ethnicities being diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime. Older men, those with a family history of the disease, and individuals in deprived areas are at higher greater risk.