Calls grow for prostate cancer screening programme in France

Debate has reopened in France about the lack of a national screening programme for prostate cancer after European trial results showed organised PSA screening cuts mortality by roughly 13%.

The ERSPC (European Randomised Study of Screening for Prostate Cancer) launched in 1993, following tens of thousands of men for over two decades.

Its 23-year follow-up results were published last year and have prompted calls for France to respond with an organised prevention strategy. 

Senator Daniel Salmon (Ille-et-Vilaine, Greens), in a written question published in the Journal Officiel du Sénat in April 2026, said it should target men aged 50-plus, and be built around a simple PSA blood test.

He also asked the government to look into potential environmental causes including pesticides, air quality, and hormonal disruption.

The health ministry responded: “There is no plan at this stage to set up a national prostate cancer screening programme, unlike those established for breast, cervical, and colorectal cancer.”

There is no organised national screening programme in the US either, but the UK is set to launch targeted prostate cancer screening in England in 2027 specifically for men aged 45-61 who carry a pathogenic BRCA2 gene variant and have a family history of breast, ovarian, pancreatic, or prostate cancer. This higher-risk group will be offered a PSA test every two years.

Symptoms and diagnosis

Prostate cancer is the most widespread form of male cancer in France, the UK and the US. Just under 60,000 new cases are diagnosed in France every year, accounting for around 24% of male cancers and leading to 9,000 deaths.

Age is the main risk factor: there are very few patients under the age of 50 and the number of diagnosed cases peaks around the age of 70. Some 22% of cases concern men aged 55-64; 41% of patients are 65-74 and 36% are aged 75 and over.

The prostate is a small gland that is part of the male reproductive system and its main function is to make the fluid that nourishes and transports sperm. As it is located below the bladder, changes in the prostate can initially present as urinary problems.

First symptoms can include difficulty urinating, feeling a need to urinate more often or that you have not fully emptied your bladder, or blood in the urine. However, early-stage prostate cancer often has no symptoms at all, hence the importance of checks.

In France, these are individual and opportunistic. Invitations do not go out to a target population; rather, a man and his doctor can decide together what checks should be performed, based on personal risk factors. 

Your doctor can perform a quick digital rectal exam or offer a test to measure the levels of PSA (prostate-specific antigen) produced by the prostate, although neither test can differentiate between aggressive and non-progressive cancers, so you might be referred for a biopsy.

It is also worth noting that PSA levels climb naturally with age, so even if your levels rise, this might not necessarily mean you have developed prostate cancer.

Treatment and prognosis

Thankfully, 80 per cent of prostate cancers are diagnosed while they are ‘localised’ or confined to the prostate and, consequently, most of these cases can be completely cured.

Treatment varies depending on various factors and can include active surveillance, localised radiation therapy (curiethérapie) or surgery to remove the prostate if required.

For this, patients may be offered a relatively new technique called Nanoknife, which uses electrical pulses to target and destroy cancerous cells.

Prostate cancer has a very good prognosis, with a stable 93% five-year survival rate.

Of the prostate cancer cases that are fatal, 79% of deaths occur in men aged 75 or over.

Risk factors

The French health service confirms that while the most common form of prostate cancer is non-hereditary (sporadique), there is a genetic factor, so you could be more likely to develop it depending on your family history.

About 20% of cases are familial (la forme familiale), meaning there are at least two cases of prostate cancer among first-degree relatives such as your father or brother or second-degree relatives (grandfather or uncle).

Only 5% are the hereditary form of prostate cancer, meaning that there are at least three cases among first-degree relatives or second-degree relatives, or two family members diagnosed before the age of 55.

Research has also revealed higher risk following exposure to pesticides and certain chemicals (such as chlordecone), and a diet too rich in dairy or fast-release sugars and carbohydrates.

Men of African descent (particularly Afro-Caribbean origin) seem to be more at risk of developing prostate cancer than men of Caucasian (white) descent, while Asian men have the lowest risk.

Get checked, stay informed

ANAMACaP, the national association for prostate cancer patients, stresses that even though this condition can be distressing for men and their loved ones, it is essential to find out as much as you can, as every case is unique.

Indeed, there are different types of prostate tumours: many could almost be described as benign, others will progress, and only a few cases will be aggressive.