New £42 million screening trial to improve efficacy of prostate cancer screening

Published on:

1 May 2024

The trial, funded by the charity Prostate Cancer UK, will be the biggest prostate cancer screening trial for 20 years. Recruitment of hundreds of thousands of men from across the UK will begin next year, with first results expected in as little as three years.

Previous trials using PSA and biopsy to screen for prostate cancer showed that it is possible to prevent 8-20% of prostate cancer deaths, depending on screening intervals. TRANSFORMwill test new screening approaches with the potential to greatly improve early detection and treatment pathways. With over 12,000 prostate cancer deaths in the UK, this could mean thousands of men saved each year, and many thousands more worldwide.

Prostate Cancer UK worked in consultation with the National Screening Committee and National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) to ensure that the trial will provide the necessary evidence to revolutionise prostate cancer diagnosis. It will compare multiple methods of screening against current testing methods, to find the safest, most accurate and most cost-effective way to screen men for prostate cancer.

In the first stage of the trial involving 12,500 men over three years, researchers will compare potential screening options including PSA blood tests, faster versions of MRI scans (Prostagram), and genetic testing to identify those at higher risk. These approaches will be compared with the current NHS diagnostic process to select the best performing methods to take forward into the second, larger stage of the trial. In this second stage, researchers will use the new approaches identified to screen up to 300,000 men. The team will also follow hundreds of thousands of men over at least 10 years to track the impact of these screening approaches on the number of lives saved and overall quality of life, and to assess how many men might experience harms associated with potentially unnecessary biopsies and treatment.

Professor of Biostatistics and Clinical Trials at Queen Mary University of London, Rhian Gabe said: "The UK has led the way in developing cancer screening programmes through rigorous, robust research. However, despite it being the second most common cause of cancer death in UK men, there still isn't a screening programme for prostate cancer. TRANSFORM is an exciting opportunity to evaluate promising and innovative screening strategies for the early detection of prostate cancer on a national scale, with the ultimate aim of preventing deaths from prostate cancer. I'm so pleased to be working with Prostate Cancer UK and a brilliant team of fellow researchers to deliver it."

In addition to Professor Gabe, the other lead researchers are Professors Hashim Ahmed and Rakesh Heer from Imperial College London, Professor Rosalind Eeles from the Institute of Cancer Research, and Professors Mark Emberton and Caroline Moore from University College London.

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