Overview
- Health Secretary James Murray accepted the UK National Screening Committee’s recommendation to reject population‑wide PSA screening in favour of a targeted programme for men with certain BRCA2 gene variants and a family history of related cancers.
- The government announced a £20 million package that directs about £18 million to the NIHR to expand the TRANSFORM trial and roughly £2.8 million to buy equipment and scale up focal therapies, which are less‑invasive treatments that target prostate tumours.
- Under the TRANSFORM expansion the trial will proactively invite all eligible Black men in the UK aged 45–74 who have not had a PSA test or prostate MRI in the past five years to join the next stage of the study.
- Campaigners and charities criticised the narrow screening rollout as too restrictive and warned it risks avoidable deaths by excluding many high‑risk men, while ministers say the targeted approach reduces harms from overdiagnosis and will be kept under review as trials produce evidence.
- Starting in 2027 the NHS plans to offer biennial PSA testing to men with qualifying BRCA2 variants and family history, update GP guidance on PSA requests, and introduce digital options such as at‑home finger‑prick PSA testing through the NHS App.