News

Reducing barriers to screening in Black men

A research team is examining the links between neighbourhood factors, PSA testing and PCa mortality to improve access to screening in Black communities. More here And a programme to close the gap for Black men with PCa was announced by Prostate Cancer Research in August ’23. See more here  In partnership with Movember, Prostate Cancer UK is funding a study to help find out why Black men are at higher risk of PCa than other ethnic groups. And Prostate Cancer Research announced an initial £875k investment in finding answers to Black men’s higher risks of diagnosis and death. Black men are twice as likely to get PCa and 2.5 times more likely to die from it than White men. Five new projects launched to specifically tackle this inequity. And there’s more informatio for Black men in the wider column on our front page

Prostate Cancer Research has launched a website to empower people living with PCa to make better treatment decisions. Since launch there have been almost 100,000 visitors to the site. You can sign up here to share your experiences on The Infopool. And the Predict Prostate web tool helps you make decisions about PCa treatment. There is also a new tool here: It aims to help patients find out about the different tests and scans used to diagnose prostate cancer or to rule it out.

A hunt is on for 14,000 men who it’s estimated haven’t started PCa treatment due to the pandemic (Feb ’22). More here. Men are asked to answer three quick questions at this risk checker: The ‘Find the 14,000 men’ campaign by Prostate Cancer UK has been nominated for the NHS Communinications Initiative of the Year Award at the 2022 Health Service Journal Awards (Aug ’22).

A new radiation treatment was approved by the US FDA in March for certain patients with advanced PCa. It has been shown to help patients with advanced PCa live longer and maintain quality of life (Mar ’22). See more here

Ryan Edginton told us about the Raman Nanotheranostics (RaNT) team who are developing a new, all-in-one technology capable of diagnosing and treating cancers using a single device. See the video here

Screening for PCa could be possible within five years, says a leading UK expert  (Dec ’21). See more here

Advanced PCa patients can take enzalutamide or abiraterone at home instead of going into hospital for chemotherapy, NHS England says. It will relieve pressure on the NHS. The drugs are smarter, kinder treatments and could extend the lives of many more men, it’s said (May ’20). More here. And a new treatment is being tested that could extend the lives of men with advanced prostate cancer, by killing cancer in the prostate despite the disease having spread. The nationwide Atlanta trial, at Imperial College London, was recruiting 918 newly-diagnosed men. More here

A Bristol man is the first NHS patient to have a device implanted which can reduce the side effects of radiotherapy by 70% (see more here). And a trial to spare the nerves around the prostate during surgery is being held at Southmead Hospital. If successful, it will reduce the risk of erectile disfunction and will be available throughout England.

Hundreds of UK men are trying out a non-invasive MRI scan for PCa to see if it should eventually be offered routinely on the NHS. The scan takes images to check for any abnormal growths. It will take a few years to know if MRI will be better than PSA tests and biopsies at spotting cancers (Jun ’19). In this article, a professor explains why finding a suitable screening method is vital but has proved difficult. And Prostate Cancer UK said the news made headlines but journalists “can be overly enthusiastic about new research” and put the record straight here. And an academic article on this is to be found here

AN NHS tool is now available – intended for men with non-metastatic PCa who are deciding between conservative and radical management regimes. It is intended only for men with non-metastatic prostate cancer who are deciding between these regimes. It’s recommend that patients use this tool in consultation with their doctor (Apr ’19). See here. And four new technologies that will tame the immune system are getting us closer to a future where cancer becomes curable. See more here