Olympic legend Sir Chris Hoy says ‘we need more men to be diagnosed with prostate cancer early to stop them getting news I got’ as it becomes most common cancer
Prostate cancer has become the most common cancer in Britain as Olympic cycling legend Sir Chris Hoy issues a fresh call for more men to be screened.
Increasing awareness among men getting checked has seen prostate cancer overtake breast cancer with 64,425 men diagnosed in 2022. The analysis of latest NHS data by Prostate Cancer UK showed this compared to 61,640 diagnosed with breast cancer during the period.
The charity is calling for increased screening for the disease after more widespread testing on men at greater risk was rejected by the UK National Screening Committee (UKNSC). It decided that blood tests were not reliable enough and likely to over-treat men for too many benign tumours which would have never caused them harm.
READ MORE: Prostate cancer screening: Everything you need to know about PSA test and who can get itREAD MORE: Prostate cancer experts explain REJECTING plan to offer test to at-risk UK men
Olympic gold medalist Sir Chris Hoy, who has a terminal diagnosis, is calling for black men and those with a family history of the disease to be proactively offered the prostate specific antigen (PSA) test by their GP.
Sir Chris said: “Prostate cancer is curable if found early. That’s why it’s vital we get the message out to men to think about their risk and to talk to their GP about a simple blood test to check. That way we’ll get more men with prostate cancer diagnosed earlier, and we’ll save thousands more lives.
“It’s great that national campaigns by Prostate Cancer UK and others drove more men than ever before to get a diagnosis in 2022. And crucially, this should continue to rise, and I hope that my story will be a part of this national movement as we see the data for more recent years.”
Prostate cancer cases continue to rise across all four nations of the UK and the disease officially became the most common cancer in England last January. Now it has become the most common cancer in Scotland, meaning that across the UK the number diagnosed annually has overtaken breast cancer.
Prostate Cancer UK said a 42% rise in diagnoses in the past decade is thanks to increased awareness of the disease by charities, the NHS and high-profile figures.
The charity is calling on the NHS to adopt wider screening using the PSA test and is running a major clinical trial, expected to report within two years, into whether combining PSA with other tests, such as rapid MRI scans, could lead to a recommendation for population-wide screening for all men.
In December, a draft recommendation from the UKNSC, which advises the Government, said prostate cancer screening should not be made routinely available for the vast majority of men in the UK.
Sir Chris added: “What we need now is action to change the system, to enable more men to be diagnosed earlier and stop them getting the news I got.
“We need GPs to be able to proactively speak to men at highest risk, for example men with a family history like me, or Black men, and discuss the PSA blood test to check for signs of cancer at an earlier stage.
“It shouldn’t be only men’s responsibility to make these potentially lifesaving conversations happen.”
The UKNSC did not recommend population screening using the PSA test, noting it was not always reliable and wider rollout was “likely to cause more harm than good”.
The committee instead put forward only a recommendation to screen men with BRCA1 and BRCA2 genetic mutations, which puts them at far higher risk of prostate cancer, every two years, between the ages of 45 and 61.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting said he was surprised by that decision and is reviewing the findings.
Chiara De Biase, director at Prostate Cancer UK, said: “We’re hugely proud to have played our part in the growing awareness of prostate cancer, which has led to more men than ever being diagnosed and treated. But it’s unacceptable that the full weight of responsibility still falls on men to understand their risk and talk to their GP about the pros and cons of a PSA test.”
The charity said GPs are currently prevented by “outdated” NHS guidelines from proactively speaking to men who have the highest risk of getting prostate cancer about their risk and offering a PSA.
Some experts say the PSA test is not reliable because men with a high PSA level may not have cancer and some men with cancer have a normal PSA result.
A positive test result may lead to unnecessary treatment for slow-growing or harmless tumours, leaving men at risk of serious side-effects such as incontinence and erectile dysfunction.
