Most men should not be screened for prostate cancer, says expert body

"Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men and kills 12,000 people across the UK each year. It instinctively feels like screening for the disease should be a simple decision - test for cancer, treat it and save lives. However, it is a far more knotty issue. Screening would rely on a blood test followed by scans of the prostate and a biopsy. But this can miss deadly cancers and detect those that never need treatment."

"Many prostate cancers grow so slowly you would have to live to 120-150 years old before they were a threat - so they do not need treating, the National Screening Committee said. Their recommendations are based on the balance between lives saved by finding cancers early, and treatment that leaves patients unable to control their bladder or maintain an erection, whose cancer was not going to kill them."

"A screening programme for prostate cancer for all men in the UK is not justified, according to a hugely influential group of experts. Instead they say only men with specific genetic mutations that lead to more aggressive tumours should be eligible. That would rule out black men who have double the risk and men who have the disease running through their families."

An influential expert committee concluded that a population-wide prostate cancer screening programme for UK men is not justified and is likely to cause more harm than good. The committee recommends screening only for men with specific genetic mutations linked to more aggressive tumours. Black men and men with family histories of the disease were not recommended for routine screening due to uncertainties and lack of trial data. Prostate screening relies on PSA blood tests, scans and biopsies that can miss deadly cancers and detect indolent tumours, leading to overtreatment with risks of incontinence and erectile dysfunction. Prostate cancer kills about 12,000 people annually in the UK.

Read at www.bbc.com