Lord David Cameron has revealed he was successfully treated for prostate cancer after being persuaded by his wife Samantha to get tested.
The former UK prime minister and foreign secretary has now backed a targeted screening programme for the UK’s most common cancer in men.
Lord Cameron has revealed how he and his wife heard the founder of international the members club Soho House, Nick Jones, speaking about his experience with the cancer on the radio a year ago.
The politician went for a prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test, an MRI scan and then a biopsy which confirmed the diagnosis.
“You always dread hearing those words,” he told The Times. “And then literally as they’re coming out of the doctor’s mouth you’re thinking, ‘Oh, no, he’s going to say it. He’s going to say it. Oh God, he said it.'”
He acknowledged his “platform”, adding: “This is something we’ve really got to think about, talk about, and if necessary, act on.”
Lord Cameron has a specific interest in health developments, working to spearhead an Oxford research centre dedicated to developing new treatments for rare genetic diseases, inspired by the death of his son 15 years ago. Ivan, who died aged six, suffered from Ohtahara syndrome, a rare form of epilepsy characterised by seizures.
Lord Cameron said last year that he intends to use his role as chairman of an advisory council at the Oxford-Harrington Rare Disease Centre to help bring together “distinguished experts” to “develop 40 new treatments for rare diseases in the next decade”.
On Monday, he said he was supporting calls for prostate screening to be offered to high-risk men.
“I want to add my name to the long list of people calling for a targeted screening programme,” he said. “I don’t particularly like discussing my personal intimate health issues, but I feel I ought to.
“Let’s be honest. Men are not very good at talking about their health. We tend to put things off.”
He said men were often embarrassed about such intimate issues but would feel bad if he did not come forward to describe his own experience. He received focal therapy as treatment, in which electrical pulses target and destroy cancer cells.
Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men in the UK, with about 55,000 new cases every year. There is currently no screening programme for prostate cancer in the UK because of concerns about the accuracy of PSA tests.
Responding to Lord Cameron’s announcement, Mr Jones on Monday repeated his call for a national screening programme “where everyone benefits”.
The committee which could recommend a programme meets this week, and he urged them to go ahead as prostate cancer is the only major cancer that does not have a screening programme in the UK, which “seems totally ridiculous”.
He said the argument against a programme had been cost and over-treatment. “Those were the case five years ago, but the data has now changed. Thousands are dying unnecessarily and there’s a solution,” he told the BBC, pointing out that treating men who have stage 3 or 4 cancer also has a high cost.
Lord Cameron's announcement comes days after the first eligible men in the UK were invited to join a major trial testing the most promising screening techniques for the disease.
The Transform project will compare various screening methods to current NHS diagnostic processes – which can include blood tests and biopsies.
It will be delivered in partnership with the NHS through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), which has committed £16 million in funding, with the remainder coming from the charity Prostate Cancer UK.
The launch comes as the UK National Screening Committee (NSC) prepares to announce its decision on whether current evidence supports the introduction of screening for the disease.
Chiara De Biase, director of health services, equity and improvement at Prostate Cancer UK said: “We’re glad to hear that David Cameron found his prostate cancer at an early stage and had successful treatment.
“We thank him for sharing his story and in doing so raising vital awareness of this disease, which is completely curable if found early. But men’s lives should not be left to chance. We lose 12,000 dads, brothers, sons and friends to this disease every year.”
