PATIENTS and staff at Basingstoke Hospital have been helping to complete a new study for helping to diagnose prostate cancer.

The trial, that was led by the Medical Research Council Clinical Trials Unit, saw advanced MRI scans used to investigate whether men had developed prostate cancer, finding results that look to improve patient care.

At present, all men identified as potentially having prostate cancer are sent for a biopsy. This procedure is invasive and can have several side effects, but this trial found that it can be unreliable, sometimes missing a cancer completely.

During the trial, the use of MRI scanners to initially look for the cancer found that there was an increase in cancers being identified. There was a 93 per cent increase in the amount of aggressive cancers identified, which is almost double the amount picked up by using the current process.

The NHS is now reviewing whether the trial outcomes can be put into practice across the board, but the majority of men seen at Basingstoke Hospital are already being investigated by MRI in the first instance. Now, the scanner makes it far more accurate to guide the biopsy to the location of the cancer and only men wh o have a suspicious MRI scan are having to undergo the biopsy.

Mr Richard Hindley, a consultant urologist at Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Basingstoke Hospital said: “The results of the trial are amazing. What happens in the UK now will be felt around the world.”

Stephen Turlin, 58 from Basingstoke, took part in the trial. The MRI scanner picked up a cancer, where the biopsy failed to identify it. He has since made a full recovery.

Mr Turlin said: “I would certainly recommend the MRI to anyone, just because it might pick up on things that the biopsy might miss. My cancer might have gone undiagnosed, so I’m really pleased that I agreed to take part in the trial. I decided to do it to try and help other men.”