Prostate Cancer: Screening
(asked on 3rd June 2026) - View Source
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of restricting routine screening to men with a BRCA2 gene variant and relevant family history on (a) early diagnosis rates, (b) cancer survival rates and (c) health inequalities among men who are at elevated risk of prostate cancer but who do not meet the eligibility criteria for the programme.
Through the introduction of England's first ever targeted prostate cancer screening programme, and through the major package of investment of over £20 million to expand research and improve treatment announced on 2 June 2026, the Government is taking an important step forward in tackling the most common cancer in men.
The targeted screening programme, rolling out in 2027, will screen men between the ages of 45 and 61 years old who have a BRCA2 gene variant and a family history of prostate, breast, pancreatic, or ovarian cancer. The UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) has assessed that a targeted screening programme for men who meet these criteria is justified on the basis that prostate cancer occurs more often, at a younger age, and more aggressively for men in this group than for other men. This means that, for this group, the benefits of early detection and treatment would outweigh the harms associated with overdiagnosis and treatment side effects.
It is estimated that approximately 1,500 men in England will be eligible for the targeted prostate cancer screening programme. Based on similar programmes for people with genetic risk factors, uptake is expected to be high.
As approximately 58,000 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer each year in England, it is expected that the majority of prostate cancer cases will occur outside of the screening programme.
This is a new programme which will potentially increase early diagnosis rates and survival in the eligible population, who, particularly at younger ages, have an increased risk of prostate cancer, with studies suggesting risks approximately five to seven times higher than average.
The introduction of this new screening programme is not expected to have an impact on the diagnosis or survival rates of men who are not eligible for the screening programme. The Government has published an equality impact assessment which sets out the potential impact on health inequalities and any mitigations, at the following link:
As the number of people eligible for the targeted prostate cancer screening programme is small, any extra demand on National Health Services is expected to be limited.