'Testing helped save my life': Councillor urges Health Secretary to change direction on prostate cancer test
A Telford and Wrekin councillor has used his own experience to urge the Government to introduce a full screening programme to test men for a cancer that is killing thousands every year.
Councillor Andrew Eade was given life-saving open surgery after finding out ‘by chance’ in 2011 that he had prostate cancer after a friend persuaded him to have a test for the prostate-specific antigen (PSA).
“Back in 2011 I had no symptoms whatsoever and only discovered by chance that I had prostate cancer after being persuaded by a friend to have my PSA checked as part of a routine blood test,” said borough councillor Eade (Church Aston and Lilleshall).
“After being initially advised that my detected cancer was small and not aggressive and that I should adopt a ‘watchful waiting’ approach, a second opinion advised that there was a mismatch in the small amount of cancer detected and my high PSA level.”
Councillor Eade says his life was saved by quick open surgery.
“I was told that although the cancer had already escaped the prostate it had been caught in the surrounding tissue,” he said.
The National Screening Committee has recently opened a consultation on its draft recommendation against screening the whole male population.
Each year in the UK, there are about 55,000 new cases and 12,000 deaths from the disease.
The risk of getting prostate cancer increases with age. About 75 per cent of prostate cancer deaths are in men aged 75 and over. The condition is very rare in men under 50, says the Prostate Cancer UK charity.
But the committee decided that evidence shows that the harms of screening outweighed the benefits because of people being given incorrect results from the PSA blood test.
It decided that the overtreatment of prostate cancers that would not have gone on to cause harm and the potential serious life-long side effects of treatment, including incontinence and erectile dysfunction, outweighed the benefits.
Councillor Eade said he has written to Health Secretary Wes Streeting to urge him to roll out a full screening programme for prostate cancer testing.
He said: “I completely understand the implications and risks of false test results, but believe that the National Screening Committee are wrong to reject early testing for this common male cancer, which would undoubtedly save many lives.
“I would advise any man over 40 years of age to request a simple PSA test and I earnestly hope that Mr Streeting will agree.”
Prostate Cancer UK called the decision “deeply disappointing”, adding that prostate cancer remains the only major cancer without a mass screening programme in the UK.
Laura Kerby, Prostate Cancer UK’s chief executive, said: “The committee’s decision will come as a blow to the tens of thousands of men, loved ones and families who’ve fought for a screening programme.
“Today we’re deeply disappointed, but we’re as determined as ever. And it won’t slow us down.
“People are sick and tired of seeing the men they love harmed by this disease. And we won’t rest until no man’s diagnosis is left to chance.”
