C2I 2022 Medical & Healthcare winner - ProstaPalp

It is estimated that one man dies every 45 minutes from prostate cancer, yet over three quarters of men who agree to a biopsy will not have the disease.

This can be problematic, with risks that include bleeding, infection and erectile disfunction. It can also be expensive, with the UK accounting for 220,000 prostate biopsies annually at a cost of £355 per procedure. In Europe, 1.3 million biopsies are carried out at €2,392 per biopsy, and in the USA one million biopsies occur at a cost of $2,300 per biopsy.

According to Professor Alan McNeill, Chief Medical Officer and co-founder of Intellipalp Dx, winners of C2I’s Medical & Healthcare category, there is also an environmental penalty to biopsies that return negative results.

“MRIs, the gold standard for prostate cancer diagnosis, require specialists to both operate and interpret the results while the technique consumes as much energy as 50 UK homes - over 13 operational hours - a significant environmental impact given the percentage of unnecessary MRIs delivered daily,” he said.