New approach to prostate cancer screening needed

The UK needs to invest in testing for those men most at risk of prostate cancer rather than follow a cast-the-net-wide approach targeting the whole population, a leading scientist from The University of Manchester – part of Manchester Cancer Research Centre – has argued at an international conference.
Men in the UK are currently entitled to PSA blood test for prostate cancer once they reach the age of 50 and will be recommended to have a prostate biopsy if their PSA level is greater than their age-specific threshold. This practice leaves around 50,000 men in the UK having an unnecessary prostate biopsy every year which is painful, can cause bleeding and infection and rarely even death.
Professor Ken Muir, from The University of Manchester, is proposing the UK moves to a risk-based approach in the community