Details of the Cambridge Prognostics Group (CPG) model, have been published in BMC Medicine by CUH urology and research lead and consultant urologist, Mr Vincent Gnanapragasam, who is also uro-oncology lecturer at the University of Cambridge and Urological Malignancies programme co-lead at Cancer Research UK Cambridge Centre.
 This new tool will classify men, diagnosed with prostate cancer, into five distinct risk categories. The researchers advocate adopting this five category system over the current three category system because it will more accurately identify men with the most aggressive form of the disease so they can be treated effectively. It will also enable men with slow-growing, less harmful tumours to make an informed decision on whether or not they want to undergo gruelling treatment, based on an accurate assessment of their risk of dying from their prostate cancer. The results have been passed on to the National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE), for consideration of adoption as national best practice. The CPG model is also being developed into a web based freely accessible tool.

Vincent Gnanapragasam said: “These findings show that we can already significantly improve the way we identify lethal (tigers) and indolent (pussycat) cancers by simply relooking at the way we classify them. The really important thing is that we can do this without the need for any new genetic test or markers which makes it accessible to all.”