By Dr Alan Smith, Consultant in Public Health Medicine, National Screening Service
We’re part of a project team in Ireland running a pilot prostate cancer screening study.
The study is led by University College Dublin (UCD) and is supported by the HSE National Screening Service, the HSE National Cancer Control Programme and Movember. It’s part of an EU-wide initiative studying how organised prostate cancer screening programmes can be implemented across Europe in a way that is feasible, clinically effective and cost-effective.
PRAISE-U (PRostate cancer Awareness and Initiative for Screening in the European Union) is a three-year project co-funded by the European Union (EU) under the EU4Health programme. The goal of PRAISE-U is to work towards better early detection and diagnosis of prostate cancer cases through carefully designed and risk-based screening programmes.
We are one of four countries in Europe, alongside Spain, Lithuania and Poland, running this pilot screening study. We’ll invite men aged 50 to 69 living in the study’s geographical areas of Dublin and Waterford to take part in the study. Men will be randomly selected to receive an invitation letter over the next 9 to 12 months. We aim to recruit 5,000 men to take part, from both urban and rural settings, and from different socio-economic groups.
The study will assess the effectiveness and feasibility of using a home-based finger prick prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test, with the goal of improving early detection and reducing the number of deaths from prostate cancer.
Our role in this pilot study is to send letters to a random sample of eligible men inviting them to consider taking part. Men who consent to take part will get a free, home-based PSA test kit sent to their door. The test kit, when complete, can be posted (freepost) to the study laboratory where it will be analysed. Results will be made available online for those taking part.
When a blood test result indicates a potential risk of prostate cancer, those men will be referred to one of three HSE Rapid Access Prostate Clinics. There, men will be reviewed by a Consultant Urologist and have access to a full diagnostic assessment that will confirm or rule out a diagnosis of prostate cancer.
The study is for men who have no symptoms of prostate cancer. Anyone concerned about the symptoms of prostate cancer should talk to their GP.
PRAISE-U represents a significant opportunity for Ireland and the EU in researching how we can approach prostate cancer screening and aims to ensure that the right men receive the right care at the right time. The results of this pilot study in Ireland and from other countries will guide the development of any future national prostate cancer screening programmes across the European Union. It will also provide the necessary evidence for Ireland’s National Screening Advisory Committee to evaluate the case for any future population prostate cancer screening programme in Ireland.
For more information about the study, contact the UCD project team by:
- Email: prostatecheck@ucd.ie
- Freephone: 1800 772 473
- Online: prostatecheck.ie