Looks at prostate cancer in men in UK prisons using past health records

Trial details

Who runs it

Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust

Trial code

NCT07870707

Record updated

16 October 2026

Original description

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer affecting men in the United Kingdom (UK) and is the most common cancer in UK prisons. Early diagnosis is vital because treatment is more effective when the disease is detected at an early stage. However, people in prison face significant barriers to healthcare, and little is known about how prostate cancer affects this population. This is concerning, as the prison population is ageing, and men over 50 are at the highest risk of developing prostate cancer. Research shows that prisoners are more likely to be diagnosed with any cancer at a late stage, often through emergency hospital visits, and are less likely to receive timely or curative treatment compared to the general population. Survival rates are also worse. However, there are very little data from the UK describing prostate cancer diagnosis and outcomes in the UK from the prison population, which this study aims to address and compare to a non-prison control group. This project, a collaboration between Oxleas NHS Trust and The Royal Marsden, will test and develop processes for extracting pseudo-anonymised data from the prison population. Using pseudo-anonymous data from prisoner health records in Oxleas NHS Trust, the Research Team will assess prevalence and examine how prostate cancer is diagnosed, the treatments offered, and the survival outcomes. Comparison will be made between the prison findings against UK Genetic Prostate Cancer Study (UKGPCS) data about men of a similar age in the non-prison population. Our aim is to understand whether prisoners face delays in diagnosis and worse outcomes, and to assess whether prison-based screening could help. The findings will inform future healthcare research and the development of policies and may support the development of tailored educational resources and screening approaches, ultimately helping to reduce health inequalities and improve outcomes for people in prison.Read full original descriptionShow less

Prostate Cancer Retrospective Prevalence, Screening, Outcome Data in NHS-served Prisons UK (PRISON-UK)

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer affecting men in the United Kingdom (UK) and is the most common cancer in UK prisons. Early diagnosis is vital because treatment is more effective when the disease is detected at an early stage. However, people in prison face significant barriers to healthcare, and little is known about how prostate cancer affects this population. This is concerning, as the prison population is ageing, and men over 50 are at the highest risk of developing prostate cancer. Research shows that prisoners are more likely to be diagnosed with any cancer at a late stage, often through emergency hospital visits, and are less likely to receive timely or curative treatment compared to the general population. Survival rates are also worse. However, there are very little data from the UK describing prostate cancer diagnosis and outcomes in the UK from the prison population, which this study aims to address and compare to a non-prison control group. This project, a collaboration between Oxleas NHS Trust and The Royal Marsden, will test and develop processes for extracting pseudo-anonymised data from the prison population. Using pseudo-anonymous data from prisoner health records in Oxleas NHS Trust, the Research Team will assess prevalence and examine how prostate cancer is diagnosed, the treatments offered, and the survival outcomes. Comparison will be made between the prison findings against UK Genetic Prostate Cancer Study (UKGPCS) data about men of a similar age in the non-prison population. Our aim is to understand whether prisoners face delays in diagnosis and worse outcomes, and to assess whether prison-based screening could help. The findings will inform future healthcare research and the development of policies and may support the development of tailored educational resources and screening approaches, ultimately helping to reduce health inequalities and improve outcomes for people in prison.

Inclusion: Pseudo-anonymous data from prostate cancer code-search in the digital health records of:; Adult men (over 18 years of age) and people with prostates in the UK prison population with healthcare under Oxleas NHS Trust (sample includes 13 prisons under Oxleas NHS Trust with 9,007 adult men); Full data extraction will only occur for prisoners who have been diagnosed with prostate cancer while in the custody of His Majesty's Prison Service. The number of prisoners living with a diagnosis of prostate cancer will be noted, but no further data extraction will take place if diagnosed outside of prison; Prostate cancer diagnosis may be made clinically (based on symptoms, PSA levels and clinical examination) or confirmed with histology. Core data that ideally should be available for inclusion are:; age at diagnosis; method of diagnosis (screening/ 2WR (symptomatic)/ emergency),; PSA at diagnosis; prostate cancer stage at diagnosis; The prisoners may or may not have another primary cancer at time of diagnosis, however the prostate cancer itself must also be a prostate primary; Records will be searched as far back as the Oxleas Data Team will be able to search electronic health records.

Exclusion: Individual cases will be excluded if it is found that a diagnosis of prostate cancer was not received, even if they underwent extensive investigations for prostate cancer; Although the number of prisoners living with a diagnosis of prostate cancer will be noted, those who were diagnosed with prostate cancer outside of their prison stay will not undergo further data extraction for data around diagnosis and outcomes; Potential participants who have opted out via the NHS England National Data Opt-Out (NDOO) service and therefore their data will not be used.

ClinicalTrials.gov NCT07870707