Rishi Sunak Leads Renewed Push for Prostate Cancer Screening

Calls grow for targeted-testing for prostrate cancer as families, doctors and officials weigh the cost of saving lives.

When former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak speaks about prostate cancer, draws it from experience as one whose family and friends have felt its toll. He urges UK citizens to prostate cancer screening program that he calls both “affordable and deliverable”.

Sunak, now an ambassador for Prostate Cancer Research, has joined a chorus of voices, including Olympic cycling legend Sir Chris Hoy who is living with advanced prostate cancer, calling for screening to begin earlier and focus on high-risk men. Their appeal comes as the UK National Screening Committee reconsiders its five-year-old decision not to recommend routine testing.

At the heart of the debate is the PSA blood test, a simple screening that can detect early signs of prostate cancer, but has long been criticized for producing false results that lead to unnecessary treatments and life-altering side effects such as incontinence and erectile dysfunction.

Yet advocates argue that the science and the stakes have changed. Improved MRI scanning now helps distinguish aggressive cancers from harmless ones, making screening more accurate. Prostate Cancer Research’s proposal targets men aged 45 to 69 who are most at risk. Those with a family history of the disease and Black men, who face double the risk of others.

The numbers tell a compelling story of around 1.3 million men who fall into this high-risk group, and the charity estimates that screening them would cost about £25 million a year. Roughly £18 per patient, similar to existing bowel and breast cancer programs.

In respect to the policy debate and proofs of various individual cases, there’s need for urgent attention. David Bateman, diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer, says he wishes testing had been available sooner. He reflects, “If I’d been screened earlier, I might have had more time”.

Though, critics like Professor Hashim Ahmed, advices that more research is still needed to balance the benefits of early detection against the potential for overtreatment. There are also concerns about the strain on NHS diagnostic capacity. But in respect to Sunak, the issue is personal and pressing. “We’ve lost too many good men to this disease,” he said recently. “We now have the tools and knowledge to change that; and what we need is the will”.

As leaders, officials and stakeholders debate and families await, one question lingers: how many lives must be lost before the UK decides that targeted-screening is worth the cost?