UK expands prostate cancer trial, limits to high‑risk men

The UK government has announced a significant expansion of a major prostate cancer screening trial while declining to implement a national screening program for the general population. Health Secretary James Murray accepted a recommendation from the UK National Screening Committee that restricts a new, routine screening program to a small group of high-risk men with a specific genetic mutation.

Under the new policy, only men aged 45 to 61 who have a BRCA2 genetic variant and a family history of breast, ovarian, pancreatic, or prostate cancer will be offered a prostate-specific antigen (PSA) blood test every two years. Officials estimate this will apply to a few thousand men in England, with the program expected to launch next year.

The decision not to recommend broader screening, including for Black men who are at twice the risk of developing and dying from prostate cancer, was based on the committee's assessment that the current PSA test is not reliable enough for population-wide use. The committee concluded that wider screening could lead to overdiagnosis and unnecessary treatments, such as prostate removal, which can cause side effects like urinary incontinence.