May 28, 2026

UK National Screening Committee final recommendation on Prostate Cancer Screening

Last year the UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) conducted an updated review of evidence for prostate cancer screening to assess whether the balance of benefits versus risks/harms had been tipped in favour of a targeted or population-based national screening programme.

In November the UK NSC announced their draft recommendation was for targeted screening only for men with confirmed BRCA1/BRCA2 variants aged 45-61. This was followed by a 12-week public consultation where the committee invited feedback on its modelling study and draft recommendations.

After considering the consultation feedback the UK NSC published their final recommendation on prostate cancer screening at 12pm midday on Thursday 28^th May.

Journalists came along to this briefing to hear about the final recommendation from representatives from the UK NSC, and independent scientists who provided more information on the body of evidence.

Speakers included:

Prof Sir Mike Richards, Chair of the UK National Screening Committee

Prof Freddie Hamdy CBE, Nuffield Professor of Surgery and Professor of Urology at the University of Oxford, and Honorary Consultant Urological Surgeon at the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals

Prof Jenny Donovan OBE, Professor of Social Medicine, University of Bristol

Prof Anneke Lucassen, Professor of Genomic Medicine and Director of the Centre for Personalised Medicine, Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford

This Briefing was accompanied by an SMC Roundup of comments.