Time for more urgent action on men’s prostate cancer screening - Steve Cardownie
I have written about prostate cancer before and I make no apologies for returning to that subject today. I do so because I noted yesterday that former UK Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, has called for the introduction of a targeted screening programme for the disease.
He told the BBC that he was “convinced of the urgency” of introducing such a programme which would be affordable, deliverable and “save countless lives.” I could not agree more.
Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) blood tests are available to men over the age of 50 and to those in high-risk groups or who are showing symptoms.
A higher-than-normal reading can indicate that there is an issue which should be addressed. In my case it did so, and a biopsy confirmed that I had prostate cancer.
I should point out that I was not displaying any symptoms whatsoever and only asked my GP for a PSA test on the advice of a friend.
I was presented with several options for treatment, and I opted for brachytherapy, which entails inserting a number of radioactive seeds into the prostate gland with the aim of killing off the offending tumour- which seems to have done the trick.
Sunak’s intervention comes as the UK National Screening Committee reconsiders its previous decision, taken five years ago, not to recommend routine screening.
He is an ambassador for Prostate Cancer Research and is backing its call for a programme which would target men aged between 45 and 69 with a family history of the cancer and also black men (who face double the risk.) This would cover approximately 1.3 million men in the UK.
The charity has estimated that such a programme, which would include an MRI scan as well as the PSA test and any subsequent biopsy, would come in at £25 million a year, or roughly £18 per patient, which is similar to the cost of bowel or breast cancer screening.
It assumes that 20 per cent of those eligible would be invited annually and, with a 72 per cent rate of uptake. Scans and biopsies would require to increase by 23 per cent, leading to a “modest” increase in NHS staffing.
Sir Chris Hoy, who has been diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer, is also advocating that the age threshold for requesting a PSA test should be lowered.
“Prostate Scotland” tells us on its website that “Prostate cancer can affect 1 in 10 men and is the most common cancer amongst men in Scotland.
"While the number of people diagnosed with prostate cancer in Scotland is increasing, so have survival rates, especially when symptoms have been recognised, an early diagnosis made and treatment started.”
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence says that “Each year in the UK about 47,600 people are diagnosed with prostate cancer and about 11,600 die from the disease (OHD 2024)” and that “The number of men diagnosed with prostate cancer has been increasing over the last ten years.”
The lowering of the age when a PSA blood test must be given if requested- is long overdue!