Competing interests: MV: none declared. KN does paid consultancy work at Spire Cardiff Hospital. He holds National Institute for Health Research funding grants (co-applicant) for two large UK clinical trials and is principal investigator for commercial trials (but no direct payment to him). He is chair of the British Association of Urological Surgeons section of oncology; guidance committee member for National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, Prostate Cancer Risk Management Programme, National Prostate Cancer Audit; and an examiner and question writer for the Fellowship of the Royal Colleges of Surgeons urology exam.