Outdated NHS guidelines prevent a prostate cancer screening program, warned experts.
Every year, up to 5,000 men are treated unnecessarily for prostate cancer, since “outdated” guidelines do not reflect the latest evidence, according to prostate Cancer UK (PCUK).
The Telegraph is committed to prostate cancer screening program to develop the most exposed to developing the disease, which includes black men and people with family history for over 1950s.
However, the risk of over -treatment was one of the most important arguments against a program, although it is most common in Great Britain and 55,000 men were diagnosed every year.
PCUK said that the lack of new instructions supported with evidence hindered the efforts to get a targeted test campaign going, since the “active surveillance” does not give the awareness that deserves to treat the disease.
It is said that close surveillance is the “best option” for men whose prostate cancer is probably not to a stage in which it really affects their health in the course of their lives.
This applies to about a quarter of all cases, and the charity organization has called for new clinical evidence that “active monitoring” is included in the NHS guidelines and that it is tailored to the individual risk of a man.
Amy Rylance, the deputy director of health improvement at PCUK, said: “In order to reduce the damage caused by prostate cancer and build up the basics for a screening program, we have to both save life and prevent unnecessary treatment, but official guidelines still have not obtained clinical evidence.
“Causes regarding over -treatment are a main reasons why the United Kingdom does not routinely examine for prostate cancer,” she said. “If you act on the latest examinations, they show that more men can certainly choose to monitor instead of treatment, reduce the over -treatment and the damage they cause.”
Currently, men can receive a protein -specific antigen test from their family doctor if they are at risk, but they can be unreliable and lead to unnecessary procedures.
In recent years, backup technology has improved considerably to confirm a diagnosis, which hope that further progress in experiments could be tested that the screening could reduce deaths by 40 percent in the future.
As soon as someone is diagnosed with the disease that they undergo treatment, such as: B. surgery or radiation therapy, or monitoring progress.
Treatment can lead to problems such as incontinence or erectile dysfunction, and so this “over -treatment” for men who lived their days without symptoms of cancer can cause life -changing problems.
At the moment, only 24 percent of hospitals only use the guidance of the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (Nice), the watchdog, while others determine their own approach.
The monitoring of prostate cancer is a “deeply concerned Wild West”, Vincent Gnanapasam said – Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Vincent Gnanepragasam, professor of urology at the University of Cambridge, said that this created “deeply in relation to Wild West about how to monitor various health teams”.
“Active surveillance is the best treatment option for men whose cancer probably does not lead to problems in their lives or cause problems,” he said. “This inconsistency leads to a lack of trust of patients in surveillance, who instead can opt for treatment that they may have never needed, which risked harmful side effects.”
The National Screening Committee Great Britain currently evaluates whether a national screening program for prostate cancer should be introduced.
After the Telegraph has shown, it is that the number of patients who have long confronted the NHS treatment of men’s cancer has doubled in five years, according to official data.
The figures in the year to May show that 22,004 men waited at least two months before they started treating urological cancer, even though they received an urgent transfer. The vast majority of cases were for prostate cancer.
It is an increase of 10,941 in the same period in 2019/20.
Overall, the number of urgent transfers for the treatment of urological cancer rose from 36,879 in 2020 to 52,464.