A recent warning from Professor Chris Booth, Medical Director of the men’s health charity CHAPS, about Prostate Cancer screening should be taken seriously by anyone concerned about men’s health, says a local GP.
CHAPS has highlighted new data from its prostate cancer screening programme, run between 2022 and 2025. The programme screened 12,857 men aged 40–80, most of whom were asymptomatic. Of those screened, 972 men had abnormal results, and so far 183 prostate cancers have been detected, with 80% requiring radical treatment. In practical terms, CHAPS identified around one man each week who may otherwise not have known he had prostate cancer.
Professor Booth’s central point is difficult to argue with. He said the findings show “a clear and urgent need for a national screening programme to detect prostate cancer at an earlier stage when it is more treatable.” He also asked: “How much trial evidence do we need before someone in this country takes notice?”
Locally Dr Stephen Coogan said: “At myGP Clinic, we strongly support CHAPS’ call for a properly designed national prostate cancer screening programme. This is not theoretical for us. Over the past five years, through proactive assessment of asymptomatic men, we have identified more than 30 treatable prostate cancers in men who had no symptoms and who may otherwise have waited until the disease was more advanced.
“We fully acknowledge the limitations of PSA testing. PSA is not a perfect screening tool. It can be raised for benign reasons, it can miss significant cancer, and it does not always separate slow-growing disease from aggressive disease. These concerns are one of the reasons the UK has not yet adopted a routine national prostate cancer screening programme. The UK National Screening Committee has previously cited the risks of overdiagnosis and overtreatment as central reasons for caution.
“But imperfect does not mean useless. In the absence of a national screening programme, PSA remains one of the few practical tools available to clinicians, particularly when interpreted alongside age, family history, ethnicity, symptoms, examination where appropriate, repeat testing, clinical suspicion and access to MRI.
“Our own experience is that current PSA thresholds can be too blunt. We have found clinically significant prostate cancers in asymptomatic men whose PSA levels were below traditional referral thresholds. That matters. A man can sit below a guideline cut-off and still have treatable prostate cancer.
“This is why the CHAPS data is so important. It challenges the assumption that proactive testing simply creates anxiety or unnecessary treatment. CHAPS reports that 80% of the detected cancers required radical treatment, suggesting that many of these were not trivial findings but clinically meaningful cancers where early diagnosis could change the course of a man’s life. (Herald.Wales)
“Newer tools are emerging. Tests such as Stockholm3, better biomarker panels, MRI-led diagnostic pathways and artificial intelligence-supported imaging may help improve accuracy and reduce unnecessary biopsies or treatment. But these technologies are not yet widely embedded in routine NHS pathways. Until they are, men are left in an unsatisfactory position: they either wait for symptoms, actively request a PSA test, or seek private assessment.
“At myGP Clinic, we have tried to respond locally to this gap. We offer a privately funded prostate cancer assessment pathway, including risk discussion, PSA testing, clinical review and access to on-site MRI where appropriate. This gives local men a route to earlier assessment, particularly where there is family history, higher-risk background, clinical concern or understandable anxiety.
But private access is not the answer.
“It is not acceptable that a man’s chance of early detection depends on whether he knows to ask for a PSA test, whether he can access a GP appointment, whether his clinician is proactive, or whether he can afford private investigation. Breast, cervical and bowel cancer screening exist because early detection matters. Prostate cancer should not remain the exception simply because the first-line test is imperfect.
“The right answer is not crude, unstructured PSA testing for every man. The right answer is a modern, risk-based national prostate cancer screening programme: targeted, evidence-led, supported by MRI capacity, newer biomarker testing, clear GP guidance and safe follow-up pathways.
Professor Booth is right to warn that the UK is in the “relegation zone” for prostate cancer outcomes unless national action is taken. Locally, we will continue to support men with proactive assessment, honest discussion of PSA’s limitations, and appropriate access to imaging and specialist referral. But nationally, men deserve better than a patchwork system.
“CHAPS is right. The UK needs a national prostate cancer screening plan. Delay will mean more men being diagnosed late, when treatment is harder, outcomes are worse and opportunities for cure have been lost.”
