'Prostate cancer screening too late for me'

John Gidman was diagnosed with incurable prostate cancer in 2018

A prostate cancer patient said a national screening programme could have detected his cancer before it became incurable.

John Gidman, 61, from Bracebridge Heath, Lincolnshire, was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer, which had already spread to his bones.

He said he was "absolutely gutted" when he was told, and was "disappointed" screening might have caught the disease before he needed treatment.

The Department of Health said the commonly-used test for prostate cancer can be inaccurate, but it was contributing £16m towards trialling a screening programme.

Mr Gidman was diagnosed in 2018 and given four years to live, a prognosis he has already surpassed.

He said he went to the GP after his wife became fed up of him needing the toilet five or six times a night.

"I was like 'It's old-man-syndrome', I'm 54, it's one of those acceptable things," he said.

Tests showed his cancer was advanced.

Mr Gidman said he had been "initially angry and upset" and believed prostate cancer screening would have caught the disease before it became incurable.

"I might not have even needed treatment," he said. "Unfortunately, it's too late for that now."

He said he would "selfishly" like to see a national screening programme introduced to protect his four sons, who were at "heightened risk" after his diagnosis.

'Inefficient' and 'unjust'

National cancer screening programmes are already in place for breast, cervical and colon cancer. Prostate Cancer Research is calling for screening to be extended to prostate cancer.

The charity's CEO, Oliver Kemp, said it was the second most common cancer in men, after lung cancer, and 50,000 men in the UK were diagnosed every year, with 12,000 dying with the disease.

He said the current screening system was "inefficient", with only a third of men being given a Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) test for the cancer the first time they asked.

He said: "It's also unjust. We see huge difference in the numbers of people being diagnosed from lower socio-economic groups and you're twice as likely to die of prostate cancer if you're black than if you're white."

He claimed there was also a North-South divide in England, with patients in the North four times more likely than some in the South East to be diagnosed after the cancer had spread to another part of the body.

Current test 'inaccurate'

The Department of Health said screening for prostate cancer was currently not recommended in the UK because of the inaccuracy of the PSA test.

It said it was awaiting research that finds a national screening programme would improve prostate cancer outcomes and minimise overdiagnosis or unnecessary treatment, which could have side-effects of incontinence and loss of sexual function.

It said it was contributing £16m towards a screening trial, being run by Prostate Cancer UK, to find "the best way to screen for prostate cancer".

It said it had "inherited a broken NHS" and "too many cancer patients are waiting too long for treatment".

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