Improving the Detection Rate of Prostate Cancer in Wales

The Welsh Lib Dems have welcomed the decision of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) to approve the use of non-invasive MRI scans to detect prostate cancer.

The scans have been piloted in three areas of Wales, but their approval paves the way for their use by health boards across Wales.

The decision follows a policy motion on Improving the Detection Rate of Prostate Cancer in Wales, passed by Welsh Lib Dem Autumn Conference this year.

Chair of Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire Liberal Democrats and prostate cancer survivor Andrew Lye said:

“I have spent most of 2018 dealing with my own diagnosis of prostate cancer and got the all clear in October, but I am still on treatment. We must remember 1 in 8 men will catch prostate cancer and every year 550 men will die of it in Wales. We now see more men dying of prostate cancer than women dying of breast cancer.

“It is a sad indictment that Wales currently has fewer multi-parametric (mpMRI) facilities than available to men in England. This has to be rectified urgently. We have to improve the diagnosis of prostate cancer and reduce the large numbers that die from it.

“It was a pleasure for me to bring this matter to the Welsh Liberal Democrats Autumn Conference in October, at Aberystwyth. We supported this petition to the Welsh Assembly. I am proud the Welsh Liberal Democrats gave their full backing at Conference to the motion I proposed from the Carmarthenshire & Pembrokeshire Local Party. We need better facilities in West Wales as well as in North Wales”.

(Passed at Autumn Conference in Aberystwyth, October 2012. Including amendments)

Proposed by: Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire Liberal Democrats
 
Conference notes:

4. 1 in 8 men will contract prostate cancer and 4 in 10 prostate cancer cases in the UK are diagnosed late at stages 3 and 4.   
5. Across the UK, prostate cancer kills a man every 45 minutes. 31 men a day. It is rising at an alarming rate and is the most common cancer in men. By 2030, it is predicted to become the most prevalent of ALL cancers in the UK. 
6. In 2015, across the UK, 11819 men died of prostate cancer, overtaking deaths of women from breast cancer (11442), for the first time. 
7. An ageing population means more men are developing and dying from prostate cancer. Statistics also show that cancer rates are higher in older age with older men having higher rates than women.  
8. The PSA test is available free to any man over 50 years of age, who requests it. There is no automatic invitation for testing as there is with bowel cancer. 
9. Prostate Cancer UK’s assertion that Wales lags significantly behind England in multiparametric MRI (mpMRI) availability. Just 3 in 7 Welsh facilities offer the scan (Cardiff and Vale, Aneurin Bevan and Cwm Taf health boards) whilst In England, 92% of men live in areas where mpMRI is provided before biopsy. An mpMRI scan is done before a biopsy and boosts the detection of prostate cancer.  
10. The Welsh Government’s review of the use of mpMRI scans.
11. NHS Wales guidance makes no reference to whether bowel cancer screening is available to those aged 75 and over.

    Conference Believes: 

12. The Welsh Liberal Democrats should support the prostate cancer petition on the National Assembly’s website and encourages members to sign it . 
13. mpMRI scans can be used with other tests to improve the number of aggressive prostate cancers caught earlier and mean that biopsies are only done when needed and thus reduces the number of serious infections as biopsies can be painful and invasive.  

Conference Resolves: 

1. Wales must not be left behind in using technology to detect prostate cancer and calls upon the Welsh Government to support the use of mpMRI scans across Wales and further technological development.  
2. Inequality in access cannot be allowed to continue and more needs to be done to encourage greater take up of testing and screening for cancers, currently on offer. Consideration should also be given to inviting men to be tested for prostate cancer from the age of 50 as the PSA test currently on offer is not actively promoted. 
3. Calls upon the Welsh Government to implement Bowel Cancer screening from the age of 50, instead of 60, as England is about to implement. 
4. To call upon the Welsh Government to make bowel screening testing available to those aged 75 and over, every 2 years, as is currently available in England and Scotland.