Congratulations to Professor Caroline Moore, Professor Mark Emberton, Professor Shonit Punwani and the ReImagine Study Group on their recent publication ‘Prevalence of MRI lesions in men responding to a GP-led invitation for a prostate health check: a prospective cohort study‘ which was published in BMJ Oncology on 22 August 2023.
The REIMAGINE study is the first study to use MRI scans with prostate specific antigen (PSA) density to assess the need for further standard NHS tests. The study has found that using MRI scans as a screening test alongside PSA density allows detection of cancers that would have otherwise been missed by the blood test alone. Of the 29 participants found to have serious prostate cancer, 15 participants had a ‘low’ PSA score that would have meant they were not referred for further investigation under the current system.
The study has been reported on The BBC and featured in many news outlets including The Guardian and Financial Times.
The REIMAGINE study was supported by the National Institute for Health and Care Research UCLH Biomedical Research Centre, the Medical Research Council (MRC) and Cancer Research UK (CRUK).
The next step towards a national prostate cancer screening programme is already underway. The LIMIT (Luminal Index MRI Identification of ProstaTe Cancer) study uses a new MRI technqiue that can allow prostate cancer to be detected using a rapid 5-minute scan. The study aims to recruit a much larger number of participants and will also attempt to recruit more black men, including through mobile ‘scan in a van’ initiatives designed to visit communities less likely to come forward for testing in response to a GP invitation.
The LIMIT study has been adopted by NCITA for our NCITA CTU, QA/QC Unit and Repository Unit support. For more information, see our NCITA patient resources for the LIMIT study.