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Written question asked by Jim Cunningham (Labour) on Thursday, 8 March 2018, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Tuesday, 13 March 2018 (named day). It was answered by Steve Brine (Conservative) on Tuesday, 13 March 2018 on behalf of the Department of Health and Social Care.

Prostate Cancer: West Midlands

Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to increase the level of prostate cancer screening in (a) the West Midlands and (b) Coventry.

Answer

Prostate screening is not offered as a population screening programme in the United Kingdom.

The UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) last reviewed the evidence about screening for prostate cancer in 2016 and recommended against a population screening programme. The reasons for this included that the test which is available for use in screening, Prostate-Specific Antigen, is neither very specific nor very sensitive, and is unable to distinguish between slow-growing and fast-growing cancers; there is therefore a risk that a national screening programme would lead to a high number of false positives. There are major harms of treating men who incorrectly test positive (i.e. have false positive tests), these include impotence, incontinence and rectal problems.

The UK NSC will be reviewing the evidence to screen for prostate cancer later in 2019/20. More information is available at:

https://legacyscreening.phe.org.uk/prostatecancer

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
131643
Session
2017-19
Subjects
Screening West Midlands Prostate cancer
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk