TRANSFORM Discovery

At the heart of Professor Rakesh Heer’s research group at Imperial College London lies a powerful commitment to transforming urological cancer care through science and innovation. As a practicing urological surgeon and academic leader, Professor Heer’s team bridges molecular discovery with surgical impact—bringing the lab bench closer to the bedside.

TRANSFORM: Trial of Randomised Approaches for National Screening FOR Men trial is a landmark, UK-wide prostate cancer screening initiative led and funded by Prostate Cancer UK. This groundbreaking study is designed to evaluate innovative screening methods with the goal of developing a reliable, targeted national screening programme for prostate cancer—something that currently does not exist.

Despite being the most common cancer in men in the UK, prostate cancer has long lacked an effective and equitable population-wide screening strategy. The current reliance on PSA (Prostate-Specific Antigen) testing has limitations in sensitivity and specificity, often leading to overdiagnosis or missed cases.

TRANSFORM seeks to revolutionize this by testing a range of advanced diagnostic tools, including MRI-based screening, biomarkers, AI-driven risk models, and genetic profiling, to determine which methods most accurately detect clinically significant cancers while minimizing harm from unnecessary interventions.

Key Features of the Trial:

• Large-scale recruitment of men across diverse age groups, ethnic backgrounds, and risk profiles, including those at higher risk such as Black men and those with a family history.
• Comparative evaluation of new screening strategies against traditional PSA testing.
• Longitudinal design to assess long-term outcomes, including survival, quality of life, and healthcare efficiency.

Expression of Interest 
To submit an Expression of Interest (EOI) for the TRANSFORM Discovery (TD) samples and data, please complete this form.

As part of the ambitious TRANSFORM programme, TRANSFORM Discovery and the Bio-Digital Twin will fuel the next generation of precision prostate cancer screening and early detection.