§ Lord Maginnis of Drumglassasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether a screening programme similar to the screening programme for prostate cancer in the Tirol province of Austria will be carried out in any region of the United Kingdom; and, if so, when. [HL3292]
§ Lord WarnerWe are committed to introducing a screening programme for prostate cancer if and when screening and treatment techniques are sufficiently well developed. Trials for prostate cancer screening have shown that there are a number of complex issues involved. There is no conclusive evidence from any country that screening for prostate cancer would reduce the death rate from prostate cancer. It would however, almost certainly lead to the diagnosis of a large number of cases of prostate cancer which would never have caused harm during a patient's natural lifespan.
The Department of Health is funding a large-scale randomised controlled trial of treatments for localised prostate cancer detected by prostate specific antigen testing ("The ProtecT Trial"), which began in 2001. The trial will last for five years at a total cost of £14.1 million.
As part of the Prostate Cancer Risk Management Programme, all general practitioners in England have been sent an evidence-based resource pack to help them to counsel men worried about prostate cancer.
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§ Lord Maginnis of Drumglassasked Her Majesty's Government:
How many deaths from prostate cancer there have been in each region of the United Kingdom during each of the past five years. [HL3291]
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Culture, Media and Sport (Lord McIntosh of Haringey)The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply.
Letter from the National Statistician, Len Cook, to Lord Maginnis, dated 23 June 2004.
As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question asking how many deaths from prostate cancer there have been in each region of the United Kingdom during each of the past five years. (HL3291)
The most recent available figures are for 2002. Figures for each year from 1998 to 2002 are given in Tables 1 and 2 below.
Table 1—Prostate cancer deaths1 in the United Kingdom and constituent countries 1998–20022 Numbers of deaths Country 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 United Kingdom 9,461 9,491 9,270 9,887 9,937 England 8,067 8,048 7,785 8,287 8,440 Wales 497 479 499 609 529 Scotland 677 769 773 777 775 Northern Ireland 220 195 213 214 193
Table 2—Prostate cancer deaths1 in Government Office Regions in England3 1998–20022 Numbers of deaths Government Office Region 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 North East 385 375 350 385 413 North West 1,043 1,050 1,061 1,129 1,074 Yorkshire and the Humber 758 795 772 753 783 East Midlands 690 673 688 686 728 West Midlands 883 871 845 945 908 East of England 898 913 898 1,003 1,064 London 892 910 810 921 927 South East 1,472 1,467 1,352 1,445 1,523 South West 1,046 994 1,009 1,020 1,020 1 The cause of death was defined using the International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision (ICD-9) code 185 and the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10) code C61 ICD-10 was introduced in Scotland in 2000 and in England and Wales, and Northern Ireland, in 2001. The introduction of ICD-10 for coding cause of death means that data for prostate cancer are not completely comparable with data for years where the cause of death was coded using ICD-9. The data should therefore be interpreted with caution. The effect of the change in classification in 2001 in England and Wales is described 131WA in a report published by ONS.4 The effect of the change in classification in 2000 in Scotland is described in a report published by the General Register Office for Scotland.5
These reports show that the introduction of ICD-10 led to an apparent increase in the number of deaths coded to prostate cancer of 3.8% in England and Wales and 3% in Scotland. Information on the impact of the change in classification on deaths in Northern Ireland is not yet available.
2 Figures are for deaths registered in each calendar year for Scotland and Northern Ireland and for deaths occurring in each calendar year for England and Wales.
3 Death registrations in England and Wales for usual residents of these regions.
4 Office for National Statistics. Results of the ICD-10 bridge coding study, England and Wales, 1999. Health Statistics Quarterly 14 (2002), 75–83.
5 Annual Report of the Registrar General of births, deaths and marriages for Scotland 2000, General Register Office for Scotland, Edinburgh 2001.