The NHS is set to review its guidance on prostate cancer screening in light of Sir Chris Hoy‘s ‘extremely moving’ call for testing to be offered more widely.
Health Secretary West Streeting said he had ordered officials to ‘look at whether we are in the right place when it comes to screening’.
He added that plans to offer men over the age of 45 a test was ‘something we are actively looking at’, and that Sir Chris appeal had been ‘so impactful’.
Mr Streeting’s comments came after cycling legend Sir Chris gave an interview to the BBC about what he called the ‘toughest year of my life’ following his own incurable prostate cancer diagnosis.
The 48 year old father of two, who last month revealed he could have just two years to live, said offering prostate cancer screening to men from the age of 45 seemed like ‘a no brainer’ and ‘could save millions of lives’.
Recalling how he had suffered ‘no symptoms, no warning, nothing’ before his diagnosis, he said: ‘It’s logical to me – why wouldn’t you get the test a little bit earlier?’
‘Catch it before you need to have any major treatment, to me it seems like a no brainer.
‘Why would you not reduce the age [and] allow more men to just go in and get a blood test.’
Currently, the NHS doesn’t offer universal prostate cancer screening – where all men are invited from a set age for regular tests, in the same way that breast, cervical and bowel cancers are screened for.
But men aged 50 and over can ask their GP for a PSA blood test – which can help pick up prostate cancer – regardless of symptoms.
Those aged 49 and younger can’t officially be offered the same test, unless doctors have a strong reason to suspect prostate illness, which is something a growing number of experts want to see changed.
Roughly 55,000 men in the UK are diagnosed with prostate cancer each year and rates have increased by more than 50 per cent in the past three decades.
While men over the age of 75 are most at risk, cases in men under 50 have soared in recent years – and doctors do not know why.
Unlike many cancers, prostate cancer is not generally thought to be linked to preventable lifestyle factors.
Health officials confirmed the first report by the UK National Screening Committee was due ‘imminently’, with changes expected in the new year.
A source said the document will ‘inform a public consultation at the end of the calendar year’, with the committee expected to ‘consider the findings in early 2025’. Current NHS guidelines mean men over the age of 50 can ask their GP for a prostate-specific antigen (PSA) blood test to check if they could have the disease.
Scotsman Sir Chris, who lives in Cheshire with wife Sarra their two children Callum, nine, and Chloe, six, announced in February that he was being ‘treated for cancer’ and that treatment was going well.
But in October he revealed he had prostate cancer and that he’d known for a year that, in fact, it was incurable.
Recalling the moment he says: ‘It came completely out of the blue. No symptoms, no warning, nothing.
‘All I had was a pain in my shoulder and a bit of pain in my ribs. You know, I’m 48 now – still lifting weights in the gym, still exercising hard.
‘I just thought it was aches and pains. But this didn’t go away and eventually I was suggested to go for a scan.
‘I assumed it was going to be tendonitis or something. It was going to be, lay off the weights or cycling for a wee while, get some treatment and it would be fine.
‘When the scan result came back [showing] it was a tumour – it was the biggest shock of my life. I remember the feeling of just absolute horror and shock.
‘And from then, appointments and seeing different doctors in different hospitals.
‘You are in a world where you feel like you were just existing, you weren’t living. It was just like a living nightmare.
‘I’ll never forget the words: “It’s incurable, but manageable.” I think it’s only in really difficult situations you find out what you’re made of, and what you can deal with.
‘It puts it into perspective – riding bikes for a living, you realise it was just a bit of fun really.’
Sir Chris does, however, believe gruelling training for the Olympics helped ready him for the ‘battle’ of cancer treatment.
‘When you’re battling it out for an Olympic gold medal, it felt like life or death in the moment.
‘The stakes have changed dramatically and it is life and death.
‘But the principal is the same – it’s about focusing on what you have control over and not worrying about the stuff you can’t control.’
He added that chemotherapy treatment was ‘one of the biggest challenges I’ve ever faced.
‘Walking into a cancer ward, seeing really ill people around you and just feeling like you’re looking into the future – it’s not a pleasant experience.’
Sir Chris underwent cold cap treatment while having chemo to minmise hair loss, which he said was ‘horrendous’.
Cold caps are devices that are fitted over the head and are chilled to sub-zero temperatures.
This helps protect the hair from being damaged by chemotherapy drugs and falling out.
‘That was the biggest challenge,’ said Sir Chris. ‘I’ve not got much hair anyway, I wasn’t fussed if I lost it. But my son Callum was quite worried about what might happen.
‘He asked if I was going to lose my hair, so for him, I thought this is something I want to do.
‘It was excruciating – like torture, basically. The strategy was to take it one minute at a time. Watching that second hand go round the lock.
‘If you can do one more minute, that’s all you need to do. And when it gets round to the end of the minute, you do it again.’
Sir Chris is surging policymakers to consider offering prostate screening tests to all men with a family history like his.
‘Looking back, my gandpa died from prostate cancer. My dad had it and has been treated for it. Soi it’s a genetic thing – it is in the family.
‘But it can happen to anybody, and it’s not necessarily for old men. One in eight men will have prostate cancer in their life at some point, and if you’ve got a family history like I have, and you’re over the age of 45, go and ask your doctor.’
The Mail has fought for nearly 25 years to raise the profile of the most common cancer in men, recently relaunching its End Needless Prostate Deaths campaign.
