Block on prostate screening lacks humanity, say MPs

Interesting (Telegraph, £). The start of the piece:

“MPs are demanding talks with the Health Secretary over the threat to restrict prostate screening, saying the recommendation “lacks humanity”.

Rishi Sunak, the former prime minister, is leading a cross-party alliance of more than 120 MPs calling for wider screening for men at risk of the disease. 

On Friday he promised to keep fighting, telling The Telegraph: “We must keep campaigning for screening because we know that it will save lives and stop families from losing a father, a brother, a son before their time. I will keep pushing the Health Secretary to look again at the clear and compelling evidence of what a targeted screening programme could achieve.”

On Thursday, government advisers ruled that the vast majority of men should not be offered screening.

The UK National Screening Committee’s (UKNSC) recommendation to the Health Secretary was to limit tests to a subgroup of just “a few thousand” men with a specific mutation.

The committee claims limiting screening to this group is the only way to be sure the programme does “more good than harm”.

The recommendations will go to James Murray, the new Health Secretary, with discussions to be held on Monday. 

Wes Streeting, Mr Murray’s predecessor, had said he would seek to “thrash out the evidence” and had been keen to introduce screening if it was evidence-based.

The new Health Secretary is under pressure to overrule his advisers, but the step would be highly unusual.”

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