Prostate cancer patients ‘missing out’ on life-extending care, charity warns

A number of men with prostate cancer are “missing out” on vital treatment, a charity has said.

It comes as a new national audit of prostate cancer care in England and Wales revealed a “postcode lottery” of care, Prostate Cancer UK said.

The audit shows there has been an increase in the proportion of men who received radical treatments for prostate cancer in both countries.

Overall, 69% of men with high risk or locally advanced disease in England had radical treatments in England, along with 68% of patients in Wales.

Prostate Cancer UK said this means 31% of men in England with aggressive but curable prostate cancer are missing out on treatments.

It highlighted disparities in the figures across different parts of the country – in some regions under half of these patients (46%) are getting radical treatments, compared to 87% in others.

While the charity said some patients may not receive treatments for legitimate reasons – such as if they have other health issues and treating their cancer would be unlikely to extend their life – these would not explain the wide variation between the figures.

It said the audit also showed a significant proportion of men with incurable cancer are missing out on treatments that could give them years of extra life, with older men and black men more likely to miss out on these life-extending treatments.

The audit revealed the number of men diagnosed with prostate cancer has increased in England and decreased in Wales.

Some 58,218 men were diagnosed with prostate cancer in England in 2024, up from 53,462 the year before.

In Wales, 2,402 men were diagnosed in 2023, down from 2,551 in 2022.

The audit also highlighted how around one in eight (12%) men diagnosed with prostate cancer in England were diagnosed when their disease had spread to other parts of the body. This rose to one in five (20%) cases in Wales.

Chiara De Biase, director of health services, equity and improvement at Prostate Cancer UK, said: “It’s outrageous that in 2025 men are dying of prostate cancer because they are not receiving treatments that should be routinely available on the NHS.

“Thousands of men each year are missing out on care that could give them many more years with their loved ones.

“For black men and those in areas of deprivation, the picture is even worse as they’re more often diagnosed at a later stage, when their cancer can’t be cured and less likely to get the treatments proven to help them live longer.

“This is a matter of life and death.”

A Welsh Government spokesperson said: “We continue to work with the NHS in Wales to help them to plan, deliver, recover and improve cancer services and have set out how we will improve quality and consistency of treatment and care across the country in our cancer improvement plan.

“We provide funding for national cancer audits to help us to measure the quality of cancer care in Wales and improve how patients are treated.

“They show how we have improved in many aspects of cancer care but also highlight areas where further work is needed.”

NHS England has been asked for comment.