'Bitterly disappointed'

Campaigners vow to fight on as panel rejects national screening to detect prostate cancer

- BY HANNA GEISSLER Health Editor

CAMPAIGNERS have been left "bitterly disappointed" after hopes that prostate cancer screening could save thousands of lives were dealt a major blow.

Experts advising the government concluded that routinely offering the PSA blood test to most high-risk men was "likely to cause more harm than good".

They recommended only targeted screening for those with BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene mutations, every two years from the age of 45 to 61.

Charities and screening advocates had called for a larger programme to include black men and those with a family history of the disease.

However men aged 50 or over can still ask their GP for a PSA test, even if they do not have symptoms.

Laura Kerby, chief executive of Prostate Cancer UK, said the UK National Screening Committee's decision "will come as a blow to the tens of thousands of men, loved ones and families who've fought for a screening programme".

She added: "Today we're deeply disappointed, but as determined as ever, and it won't slow us down.

"People are sick and tired of seeing the men they love harmed by this disease, and we won't rest until no man's diagnosis is left to chance."

Actor Sir Tony Robinson, 79, who was diagnosed more than a decade ago, said he was "bitterly disappointed" with the decision.

Prostate cancer sufferer Sir Chris Hoy, who has been given two to four years to live after it spread to his bones, said: "I am extremely disappointed and saddened.