Accurate, non-invasive prostate cancer tests can be a game changer – but there’s a way to go
Using MRI scans to screen for prostate cancer could “significantly” reduce the number of men dying from the disease, a study suggests.
This raises genuine hope that more cases could be caught earlier, and therefore more lives saved.
An important hope, given prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men and kills 12,000 each year.
The current PSA blood test for prostate cancer certainly isn’t working well enough.
A positive PSA result (which stands a reasonable chance of being a false positive) culminates in the need for an invasive examination and a biopsy which is painful and carries some risks of its own.
It’s known to be one reason why many men, even those at higher risk (those with a family history or black ancestry) don’t come forward even if they know something isn’t right.
If MRI scans could provide a much more accurate and non-invasive test – as this study suggests – it could not only improve diagnosis of individual cases but also encourage more men to come forward, saving more lives.
But there’s a way to go.
This was only a small study of 303 men. MRI scans will have to be tested on far more to prove it is clinically effective, and crucially for the NHS, cost effective.
Most prostate cancers don’t require aggressive treatment. How often and at what age should men be screened to catch the aggressive, deadly cases?
Fortunately that work is under way, and this research raises the possibility that much-needed improvements in screening for prostate cancer are available.