by Men in Great Britain often feel pressure to “harden” instead of going to the doctor if they are harmful to health.
Even today, some men go all their lives without visiting a family doctor. To expect the same men to get their doctor dark for a prostate test is therefore unrealistic.
For men with the highest risk of prostate cancer, it seems sensible to proactively preserve tests for the disease, as well as invitations to intestinal, cervix and breast cancer screening at the door across the country.
Unless this happens, although prostate cancer kills 12,000 men in this country every year. If you are confronted with the “big C”, those affected can only hope that it was caught as early as possible.
An early diagnosis is based on the knowledge of the symptoms that you should pay attention to, such as: B. a persistent cough for lung cancer or changes in bathroom habits when it comes to colon cancer or on the existing screening campaigns to catch them quickly.
In view of the fact that men with prostate cancer show no symptoms in 20 percent of cases, the disease, which is most common in Great Britain, is effective.
As a result, too many men are diagnosed too late. Among them is the six-time Olympic cycling master Sir Chris Hoy. For every top -class case there are thousands of other men who fight against the disease. In fact, each of eight men will develop prostate cancer in their lives.
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The campaign asks
The Telegraph calls for a more targeted national screening program for prostate cancer, which focuses on men who have the greatest risk of developing the disease.
This includes men over 50, black men, whose risk is twice as high as white men and people with a family history of prostate cancer.
The current situation
The way it looks, 55,000 men are diagnosed in England every year.
Data show that almost 10,000 of them had to visit their family doctor at least three times before their cancer was recognized.
The Telegraph spoke to some of these men and will bring their stories to them as part of our campaign.
In one of eight prostate cancer cases, stage 4 is currently caught when the disease is incurable. A postcode lottery means that this number in the northeast is 20 percent and in Scotland with 35 percent much higher.
1810 record increase in prostate cancer
Ultimately, more men die from the disease (12,000) every year than the number of women dying from breast cancer (11,400).
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) currently recommends the Quango, which decides which treatments in healthcare are offered, only a PSA blood examination for men who present symptoms.
Men over 50 or people in high -risk proposals can also request a test, even without symptoms.
The test measures a substance that naturally occurs in the prostate. A high score can be an indicator of cancer, but also cannot be connected. Further tests can then confirm whether someone has cancer.
The Telegraph is of the opinion that if the PSA test was offered proactively as part of a targeted screening program, life is saved, since more cases are caught in an earlier time if the treatment is more successful.
If men who are at risk are invited to simple PSA blood tests instead of asking them, “there is no doubt that a life is saved,” says Oliver Kemp, CEO of prostate cancer research.
“Prostate cancer in stage 1 has a survival rate of 100 percent. It does not need a mathematician to find out that they save 100 percent of life when they catch 100 percent of cases in level 1.”
Prostate charity organizations and celebrities affected by the disease also require measures.
What the test is and how it works
A PSA test is the first step to obtain prostate cancer diagnosis. It is inexpensive and costs the NHS “a few pounds per test,” says Kemp, helping men who should subject further checks for the disease.
First and foremost, this usually means an MRI scan. If necessary, the patient would have a prostate biopsy to rule out cancer or confirm a diagnosis.
The test measures the amount of PSA (prostate -specific antigen) in a man’s blood. This is a protein that is produced by healthy cells in the prostate, but also by prostate cancer cells.
A result of the three is considered healthy, while an increased PSA mirror may indicate that there is a problem with the prostate.
A urinum infection, movement, gender and age can also temporarily increase the PSA values.
It is currently responsible that men are aware of their risk of prostate cancer, which is higher in black men, those with a family history of the disease and the over 50 years higher and the symptoms. These can contain difficulties to urinate or empty the bladder, a weak flow and the feeling that the bladder has not solved properly.
How many life could a screening program save?
A screening program should mean that prostate cancer is caught earlier so that more men can undergo treatment.
The current treatment path for prostate cancer can include surgery, radiation therapy, chemotherapy or hormone therapy depending on any specific case and its stage.
Eight out of ten men survive prostate cancer and live for more than ten years.
Cases and rates of prostate cancer
However, the results depend on the stage in which it is diagnosed. The survival rates for men with prostate cancer in stage 1 or stage 2 are close to 100 percent, while the five-year survival rate for those in the 3-year survival of around 97 percent is. The five -year survival rate for prostate cancer in stage 4 is almost half of 49 percent.
If there was a targeted national screening program for prostate cancer, some men would still inevitably be through the gaps. However, many other cases would be caught and treated early on “if the test rate was increased,” says Kemp.
Why now?
Until recently, the treatment of prostate cancer was difficult.
Kemp explains that a man, since a high score of a PSA test does not always mean that a man has prostate cancer.
Now things are different. “A PSA test will not follow from a digital rectal test [a finger check]. If your scores are high, an MRI scan and closing surveillance will take place. Afterwards, if doctors believe that they need it, there can be a biopsy through their perineum. “
The NHS is also “much better in active surveillance,” explains Kemp. “If someone is high, the doctors will continue to monitor and check their prostate to ensure that it does not grow instead of simply taking it out unnecessarily.”
This means that the point has now been reached if the loss of life caused by a lack of screening “now outweighs the damage caused by preventive prostate conversions,” says Kemp.
Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in Great Britain without screening program. The success of other screening programs, of which there are three in Great Britain, was dramatic.
Those who complete a colon cancer screening that is offered to everyone over 50 are 25 percent less likely to die. Breast cancer screening, which is offered every three years of women between the ages of 50 and 70, is said to save 1,300 lives every year. Women between the ages of 25 and 64 are invited to screening cervical cancer every five years, which saves 5,000 lives annually.
If men with high risk for PSA tests were invited in the same way, the NHS could also make the message in addition to saving life that prostate cancer tests are no longer the creepy things they were once, ”says Kemp. According to a survey of prostate cancer research, 71 percent of men would carry out a PSA test if they were invited.
“Many men don’t know that they have a prostate or where or what it is, no matter the symptoms,” says Kemp. “I know that my own grandfather would never have gone to the doctor unless he was told.”
It is certainly time to make a change.
