For years, men have been told that prostate cancer screening is 'too difficult', 'doesn't save lives' or is 'not supported by the evidence'. Yesterday's recommendation from the UK National Screening Committee will leave many men wondering whether the evidence will ever be enough.

The Committee has decided not to recommend screening for most men who are at the highest risk of developing the disease. Black men remain excluded, despite the fact they face double the risk of prostate cancer compared to other groups, and are more likely to die from it.

Men with a strong family history of prostate cancer are also still excluded, unless they happen to carry a BRCA2 gene variant as well, which makes them particularly susceptible.

Even the small group of men with BRCA2 variants who were expected to benefit from this recommendation have seen the criteria narrowed further. Now they must also have a 'relevant family history' to qualify.

In the draft recommendation published in November, men with BRCA1 variants were included. Now they have been removed, too.

The number of men who will ultimately benefit from this recommendation is likely to be tiny – perhaps only a few thousand nationwide. And yet more than 12,000 men continue to die from – not with – prostate cancer in Britain every single year. As someone who has been treated for prostate cancer, campaigned on the issue and spoken to countless families devastated by late diagnosis, I find this decision incredibly difficult to accept.

What makes it even harder to understand is that many of the major concerns raised by independent experts about the committee's modelling do not appear to have been properly addressed.

Somehow, we appear to have arrived at an even narrower recommendation than before. Frankly, that feels mind-boggling.

How is it that, in 2026, a disease that kills one man every 45 minutes in our country can still be met with such caution when it comes to early detection?

These are people's fathers, brothers, grandfathers, uncles, sons and friends.

What makes this worse is that we already know who many of the men at highest risk are, and yet we continue to let them down.

The Committee says its model will remain 'alive'. It must now prove those words mean something. Because from where many men and their families are standing today, this does not feel like progress.

It simply feels like failure. 

Nick Jones is an entrepreneur and founder of Soho House