Accelerating the diagnosis of prostate cancer

UK statistics: Prostate Cancer UK

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men, with around 56,000 diagnoses and 12,000 deaths each year in the UK alone. Globally, four million MRI scans are currently needed each year to diagnose the disease. With a surge in prostate cancer cases predicted, this demand is set to rise rapidly.

A major breakthrough for prostate cancer diagnosis

The PRIME trial launched in 2022, funded by philanthropic support from The John Black Charitable Foundation and a research grant from Prostate Cancer UK. 

Led by chief investigator Professor Veeru Kasivisvanathan (UCL Surgery and Interventional Science), clinical trials took place at 22 healthcare settings in 12 countries. The focus of the study was to improve the way prostate cancer is diagnosed using imaging. This year, the results of the trial concluded that a two-part MRI scan – without the need to inject dye and have a doctor present – is just as effective at diagnosing prostate cancer as the three-part MRI scans traditionally used. 

Halving the total scanning time needed to just 15-20 minutes, this medical breakthrough has the potential to radically improve patient outcomes. In clinical settings, a combination of shorter procedure times, reduced costs, and lessened staffing requirements are factors that could enable the doubling of global capacity for prostate cancer MRI scanning – potentially reaching eight million patients a year. 

Increasing impact with AI and philanthropy

In leading the transformation of clinical practice, the PRIME trial marks a major step forward. But as this breakthrough will result in a sharp increase in the number of scan images created, researchers are now looking towards strengthening capacity to interpret them. 

This led to The John Black Charitable Foundation making a further donation to establish the three-year PARADIGM trial grant (Prostate MRI Analysis by Radiologists and AI – Disease Identification and Guided Management), which began in 2025. This trial will explore whether AI can accurately detect prostate cancer from MRI scan images.

PARADIGM is the first multi-centre study evaluating AI against expert radiologists in prostate cancer detection. This will also be the first time AI is used in a patient pathway, instead of training AI on existing images first. This will allow researchers to make faster progress. 

“Philanthropic funders recognise the potential of novel, game-changing ideas, and this makes our relationship with The John Black Charitable Foundation very special,” Professor Kasivisvanathan said. “Studies via other funding routes can take years to set up and traditional funders may be less likely to fund practice-changing ideas, with a preference for more incremental changes.

In a competitive research landscape, it is often difficult for researchers to gain bespoke funding to undertake studies on an international scale – something that Professor Kasivisvanathan also feels strongly about.

“Multi-centre studies with a variety of global populations bring results that are significantly more impactful, because you can show generalisability across different settings. It means you can change clinical guidelines not just in a local context, but around the world.”