\n<\/p>\n
More than 100 MPs, including Rishi Sunak, have urged Wes Streeting to introduce screening for prostate cancer.<\/p>\n
The UK National Screening Committee, a government agency that advises ministers and the NHS about all aspects of screening, will recommend whether men at higher risk of the disease should be offered checks. It is due to write to the health secretary later this week, the Telegraph reported.<\/p>\n
Sunak, who is leading a cross-party alliance of 125 MPs, met Streeting on Monday evening to hand him an open letter urging the government to introduce tests so men at the highest risk, including Black men, men with a family history of prostate, breast or ovarian cancer, and those carrying the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, are \u201cno longer left behind\u201d.<\/p>\n
The letter says: \u201cOur current opportunistic PSA [prostate-specific antigen] testing system is unstructured, inefficient and unfair \u2013 a postcode lottery where some men succeed because they know to ask or can pay privately, while others are turned away despite repeated requests.<\/p>\n
\u201cYet the data hide what cannot be modelled: eroded trust among communities who feel abandoned. Black men, already at higher risk, often believe the system fails them. Families bear devastating emotional and financial burdens from late-stage disease \u2013 costs absent from formal modelling but among the most compelling reasons to act.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe now have the tools to deliver screening safely and effectively, yet the system is frozen waiting for next-generation trial data.<\/p>\n
\u201cWaiting would entrench inequality and allow preventable deaths. Evidence is strong enough to act now. Perfection must not be the enemy of progress.\u201d<\/p>\n
The push comes a day after David Cameron disclosed he was treated for prostate cancer. He called for a targeted screening programme.<\/p>\n
Cameron, 59, told the Times: \u201cYou always hope for the best. You have a high PSA score \u2013 that\u2019s probably nothing.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have an MRI scan with a few black marks on it. You think, \u2018Ah, that\u2019s probably OK.\u2019 But when the biopsy comes back, and it says you have got prostate cancer.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou always dread hearing those words. And then literally as they\u2019re coming out of the doctor\u2019s mouth you\u2019re thinking: \u2018Oh, no, he\u2019s going to say it. He\u2019s going to say it. Oh God, he said it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in males in the UK, with about 55,000 new cases every year.<\/p>\n
There is no screening programme for the form of the disease in the UK because of concerns about the accuracy of PSA tests.<\/p>\n
A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine last month suggested prostate cancer screening could reduce deaths by 13%.<\/p>\n
Researchers found that one death from prostate cancer was prevented for every 456 men who were invited for screening and that one death from prostate cancer was averted for every 12 men in whom prostate cancer was diagnosed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
More than 100 MPs, including Rishi Sunak, have urged Wes Streeting to introduce screening for prostate cancer. The UK National Screening Committee, a government agency that advises ministers and the NHS about all aspects of screening, will recommend whether men at higher risk of the disease should be offered checks. It is due to write<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35097,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[5750,654,414,1821,201,1225,1763],"class_list":{"0":"post-35096","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-approve","9":"tag-cancer","10":"tag-mps","11":"tag-prostate","12":"tag-screening","13":"tag-streeting","14":"tag-urge"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35096","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35096"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35096\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/35097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}