00:00What we're announcing today are response to the recommendation by the UK National Screening Committee,
00:05the independent expert body, who's been looking at whether to do a national screening programme for all men
00:11to identify cases of prostate cancer.
00:13And what they've recommended is that there should be a targeted screening programme,
00:18the first of its kind, for men aged between 45 and 61,
00:22who also have what's called a BRCA2 gene variant, which puts them at higher risk of getting prostate cancer.
00:27And one of the questions I've been asking over the last few days is,
00:31why have they recommended that rather than a full national screening programme?
00:35And I think what it comes down to is that prostate cancer is different than a lot of other cancers.
00:40It grows much more slowly than other cancers.
00:42So if you had a national screening programme for all men, using current screening techniques,
00:48most men who would bring up in those tests would actually never go on to develop prostate cancer
00:54that threatens their life, for instance.
00:56They would, however, in many cases have treatments, and those treatments have really severe side effects.
Comments