Prostate cancer, a disease that quietly affects hundreds of thousands of men worldwide each year, has recently taken center stage in both the United Kingdom and Japan, as patients, advocates, and pharmaceutical innovators push for better screening, diagnosis, and treatment. The stories of individuals like Grant Aldred, Michael Kinnear, and Chris Skinner in the UK underscore a pressing need for more robust screening programs, while across the globe, a new wave of clinical trials in Japan signals hope for more accurate detection and innovative therapies.
For Grant Aldred, a 58-year-old from Scarborough, the consequences of late diagnosis are painfully personal. According to BBC News, Aldred was diagnosed with prostate cancer at 56. He believes that, had a screening program been available when he was 50, his cancer might have been caught early enough for curative surgery. “A lack of a screening programme, to put it dramatically, will lead to my death,” he told BBC News. Aldred’s journey began when he pushed for a PSA (prostate-specific antigen) blood test during a routine GP appointment. The PSA test, which screens for proteins made by the prostate gland, can sometimes indicate cancer when levels are elevated. Yet, as Aldred’s experience shows, the test is not routinely offered to healthy men in the UK, and he had to advocate for himself to get one.
Prostate cancer is a tricky adversary. The prostate, a walnut-sized gland at the base of the bladder, grows with age and can become cancerous when its cells start multiplying uncontrollably. But there’s no single, foolproof diagnostic test. PSA results can be unreliable—sometimes high levels are caused by infection rather than cancer, which complicates the decision to screen broadly. Still, patient stories suggest that awareness and targeted screening could make a world of difference, especially for those at higher risk.
That’s why a UK charity, with the backing of former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, is calling for a targeted screening program. Their report recommends focusing on black men and those with a family history of prostate cancer, aged 49 to 69. The proposed program, estimated to cost £25 million annually, would cover MRI scans, blood tests, and biopsies—potentially saving lives by catching the disease earlier.
The case of Michael Kinnear, a 74-year-old from Brighouse, further illustrates the stakes. Kinnear was diagnosed in 2018 after experiencing frequent night-time urination. “I was going to the toilet at night 12 or 13 times,” he told BBC News. Within days, he underwent a battery of scans, but a critical delay—his results went missing for 17 weeks—meant that by the time they were found, his cancer had spread to his bones and lymph nodes. Kinnear’s family history is riddled with prostate cancer: his uncle died of it, his cousin and brother have it, and he worries for his sons. Despite initial refusals, he pushed for his sons in their 40s to get PSA tests—both were ultimately cleared. He believes a screening program could “save more lives.”
Chris Skinner from Shipley had a similarly fraught path to diagnosis. In 2015, after noticing persistent urinary symptoms, he was initially dismissed by his GP as just experiencing old age. It was only after his wife insisted on a PSA test that he was diagnosed. “Eight of the 11 samples had cancer,” Skinner recalled. He’d never known about prostate cancer risks before, and now champions greater awareness and screening, saying, “There are so many people walking around not aware that they've got it, it is absolutely essential.”
Currently, the UK National Screening Committee is reconsidering its 2020 decision not to recommend routine prostate cancer screening. The debate is complex: while widespread screening could help catch cancers earlier, the limitations of current tests and the risk of overdiagnosis remain significant hurdles. Yet, as patient stories accumulate and advocacy grows, momentum for change is building.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, Japan is taking a different tack—investing in advanced diagnostics and treatments through clinical research. On October 15, 2025, Curium Group, PeptiDream Inc., and PDRadiopharma Inc. announced the launch of a registrational Phase 2 clinical trial in Japan for 64Cu-PSMA-I&T, a PET radiopharmaceutical that targets prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) on prostate cancer cells, according to GlobeNewswire. This open-label, single-arm study will enroll around 70 patients who are newly diagnosed with unfavorable intermediate, high, or very high-risk prostate cancer and are scheduled for surgery with pelvic lymph node dissection.
The trial will assess the sensitivity, specificity, and safety of 64Cu-PSMA-I&T, drawing on data from Curium’s ongoing global clinical trials. In parallel, a therapeutic trial is planned for 177Lu-PSMA-I&T, aimed at patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer—a group with a grim prognosis, as the average overall survival is about three years in clinical settings, and often shorter in real life. Japan sees roughly 90,000 to 100,000 new prostate cancer cases each year, highlighting the urgent need for better diagnostic and therapeutic options.
Renaud Dehareng, CEO of Curium Group, emphasized the importance of these trials, stating, “Conducting these registrational trials, in partnership with PeptiDream and PDRadiopharma, marks a significant milestone in our mission to expand access to cutting-edge radiopharmaceuticals to patients with prostate cancer across Asia.” Patrick C. Reid, President & CEO of PeptiDream, added, “Targeted radiopharmaceuticals are rapidly revolutionizing how we both diagnose and treat cancer.”
The collaboration between Curium and PDRadiopharma covers not just clinical development, but also regulatory filing, manufacturing, commercialization, and distribution in Japan. Curium will continue to lead global development and support technology transfer for manufacturing in Japan, including a high-throughput Copper-64 production line. These efforts are part of a broader push to bring innovative radiopharmaceuticals to market, with Curium’s pipeline already boasting more than 45 products that advance cancer care worldwide.
For patients, these advances can’t come soon enough. Whether it’s the push for better screening in the UK or the development of new diagnostic and therapeutic tools in Japan, the ultimate goal is the same: to catch prostate cancer earlier, treat it more effectively, and give men a fighting chance at a longer, healthier life. As research progresses and awareness grows, the hope is that stories like those of Aldred, Kinnear, and Skinner will become rarer—and that fewer families will face the heartbreak of a late-stage diagnosis.
With science, advocacy, and patient voices converging, the landscape of prostate cancer care is poised for meaningful change—one that could rewrite the odds for countless men around the world.
