Men checked for prostate cancer on the NHS will soon be able to get same-day results, with AI processing MRI scans in seconds.

The service, set for pilot use, would see patients assessed by the bot as at high risk immediately sent to a radiologist before an on-the-spot biopsy.

Results would be reviewed at once, with all-clears issued that day and diagnoses the next, for the one in eight men who will get prostate cancer in their lifetime.

The process will be trialled at Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust and on some 10,000 scans at up to 15 hospitals in Yorkshire, Manchester and the southwest and east of England.

If successful, it will be rolled out nationally.

The UK's top cancer doctor has dubbed the service a 'game changer', with speed crucial in all cancer treatment and diagnosis.

Professor Peter Johnson, the NHS's national clinical director for cancer, said the rapid testing would 'help give the best chance of treatment being successful for patients and their families'.

And Health Secretary Wes Streeting told The Telegraph it would slash weeks or sometimes months of 'needlessly distressing' waits for results.

NHS waiting standards say three-quarters of patients with suspected cancer should receive a diagnosis or all-clear within 28 days.

But latest figures show this target was met for under a third of those with urological cancer, most commonly in the prostate.

The pilot aims to increase the number of patients receiving an outcome within 28 days - and see if it can aid early detection. 

Dr Oliver Hulson, consultant radiologist at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust and leader of the trials, hoped they will help 'fast-track' those who need further tests. 

If the pilots succeed, patients will undergo all the necessary processes in a single day, in one location, at Leeds Cancer Centre. 

Men given an urgent prostate cancer referral by their GP should undergo an MRI and biopsy within seven days, according to best practice. 

In reality, however, the wait is often much longer due to a lack of radiologists - which the use of AI could help solve. 

If trials of the new bot, called Pi and developed by Lucida Medical, work well, it could be rolled out in community settings to deliver care closer to home. 

Lucy Davies, VP of clinical at the medical technology firm, hoped the tool can create a 'one-stop shop' and 'more efficient care pathway' for prostate cancer diagnosis. 

And Amy Rylance, Prostate Cancer UK's assistant director of health improvement, said this kind of speed is what patients 'desperately need'. 

The scheme forms part of broader NHS and government plans to improve early cancer diagnosis. 

It is expected a national cancer plan will be outlined by the end of this year. 

Men with suspected prostate cancer are referred due to symptoms like erectile dysfunction or problems with urination, such as needing to do so more often.  

These signs can also be a normal aspect of growing older or caused by inflammation or a benign prostate enlargement.

Patients can ask their GP for a prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test, with high scores seeing clinicians refer them for further testing.

But this current diagnostic process is often beset by delays, between an MRI scan to detect the disease and expert assessment to determine if a biopsy is needed too. 

Hold-ups often come in waiting for biopsy results themselves too - using up valuable time that may be needed to deliver vital treatment. 

Discussion around testing for the disease has renewed since last year, when champion cyclist Sir Chris Hoy announced his terminal diagnosis.

The six-time Olympic gold medallist discovered he had the disease in 2023 and told the public a year later. 

Even though he has a family history of prostate cancer - his father and grandfather both had it - he was never offered a PSA test. 

In the nearly six months since his announcement, some 5,000 more men have been urgently referred for urological cancer. 

An early diagnosis is key for survival - but roughly half of those with the disease find out later on. 

More than 90 per cent of those diagnosed at stage one and two go on to survive for ten years. 

But just 18.6 per cent of men who discover the cancer later, at stage four, live as long as that. 

Prostate cancer is the most common type among men in Britain, with around 12,000 deaths and 67,000 diagnoses every year.