The National Prostate Cancer Audit (NPCA) is the first national clinical audit of the care that men receive following a diagnosis of prostate cancer. It is designed to collect information about the diagnosis, management and treatment of every patient newly diagnosed with prostate cancer in England and Wales, and their outcomes.

The preliminary results from the most recent 2015 Report show that:

“About half of newly diagnosed men were over 70 years of age and about two thirds were in good health. Most men were of white ethnic origin (94%) and men living in more socioeconomically deprived areas were underrepresented with only 13% from areas within the most deprived quintile.

45% of men with available data had a PSA level less than 10 and 32% had a PSA level higher than 20. Prostate cancer disease status could be determined for 59% of included men, 9% of whom had advanced (metastatic) disease, 31% locally advanced disease, 19% either locally advanced or advanced disease (insufficient information to determine their metastatic status), 34% intermediate-risk disease, and 7% low-risk disease.

Transrectal ultrasound was the predominant biopsy technique performed before treatment for 85% of men. Multiparametric MRI was recorded in only 21% of men with about half of these performed before biopsy.

Just over half of patients (53%) with newly diagnosed prostate cancer had at least one treatment recorded as agreed at MDT. This included radical prostatectomy in 20% of cases (50% of which were recorded as robotic-assisted laparoscopic procedures) and radical radiotherapy (EBRT/ brachytherapy), cryotherapy or HIFU in 29% of cases”.

The NPCA is managed as a partnership between a team of clinical, cancer information and audit experts from the British Association of Urological Surgeons, the British Uro-oncology Group, the National Cancer Registration Service and The Royal College of Surgeons’ Clinical Effectiveness Unit.