Mass screening for prostate cancer has not been recommended for use on the NHS.
The National Screening Committee (NSC), comprised of doctors and economists, told the government that screening is “likely to cause more harm than good”.
Its decision means the NHS is unlikely to offer mass screening for men over the age of 45.
In a draft recommendation, the committee said the reason it was “not recommending whole population screening using the prostate specific antigen (PSA) test is that is it likely to cause more harm than good”.
Instead it proposes a targeted screening programme every two years for men with specific genetic mutations, known as BRCA-1 and BRCA-2, between the ages of 45 and 61.
It added it did not recommend extensive screening for black men, who are at higher risk, due to a current lack of evidence and data.
The committee also does not recommend targeted screening for men with a family history of the disease, who are also at a higher risk of prostate cancer.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting said he would consider the findings, adding that he wanted to see earlier diagnosis and quicker treatment, but that needed to be balanced against “the harms that wider screening could cause to men”.
“I will examine the evidence and arguments in this draft recommendation thoroughly, bringing together those with differing views, ahead of the final recommendation in March,” he said.
Professor Sir Mike Richards, a former national cancer director and chairman of the NSC, told a briefing that modelling on PSA shows “whole population screening may lead to a small reduction in prostate cancer deaths, but the very high levels of overdiagnoses” means the harms outweigh the benefits.
Experts are also waiting to see data from a large trial launched by Prostate Cancer UK last week into whether combining PSA with other tests, such as rapid MRI scans, may lead to recommending population-wide screening.
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The trial is looking at the most promising screening techniques available, including PSA blood tests, genetic tests and 10-minute MRI scans, and whether they can be combined for a national screening programme.
The results will be ready within two years, it is hoped.
Mr Streeting added: “In the meantime, we will keep making progress on cutting cancer waiting times and investing in research into prostate cancer detection – in the last 12 months, 193,000 more patients received a diagnosis for suspected cancer on time.
“We are also providing funding to the £42m TRANSFORM trial, which has the potential to revolutionise prostate cancer screening, cutting out harmful side effects and making screening far more accurate.”
