Cambridge builds prostate cancer test so men can avoid surgery

THOUSANDS of men with prostate cancer could avoid invasive treatment and side effects after scientists developed a personalised tool to give them a prognosis.

Every year more than 47,000 men in the UK are diagnosed with the disease, but in many cases it is not clear how fast-growing the cancer is.

Currently, around half of patients are classed as low or intermediate risk – and left to decide if they should opt for treatment such as surgery and radiotherapy, or left to be monitored.

Treatment can carry significant sideeffects, including urinary incontinence and erectile dysfunction.

Rates of treatment for cases classed as low-risk vary more than 10-fold between different hospitals. Scientists from the University of Cambridge said their new method could give patients a personalised survival estimate, allowing patients and doctors to make a far more informed choice.

The online tool, which will be offered to hospital consultants, also shows how survival for the next 10 to 15 years could change, depending on different treatment options, and the risks of various side effects.

The researchers’ study, published in the journal PLOS Medicine, found that doctors without access to the algorithm over-estimated the risk of death and were far more likely to say treatment was needed, compared with those using the programme.

The model was developed using data from more than 10,000 prostate cancer sufferers in the East of England.

One in five cases had opted for “watchful waiting”, with the remainder opting for surgery, radiotherapy and hormone therapy.

Lead researcher Dr Vincent Gnanapragasam, of Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: “We believe this tool could significantly reduce the number of unnecessary and potentially harmful treatments that patients receive and save the NHS millions every year.”

Surgery or radiotherapy costs on average around £7,000 per patient.

The National Prostate Cancer Audit shows that rates of treatment for lowrisk prostate cancer ranges from two to 25 per cent between hospitals.