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Former Prime Minister David Cameron has revealed he has been treated for prostate cancer.<\/p>\n
Lord Cameron, 59, told the Times newspaper his wife had insisted he go for a check-up after being inspired by a BBC radio interview with entrepreneur Nick Jones<\/a>, who was campaigning for more men to be tested after being diagnosed himself.<\/p>\n Lord Cameron had a prostate specific antigen (PSA) test earlier this year, followed by an MRI scan and a biopsy. A PSA test looks for proteins associated with prostate cancer and the result was high in Lord Cameron’s case.<\/p>\n He was treated with focal therapy, which targets the area where the tumour is present using methods such as ultrasound waves to destroy cancer cells.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in males in the UK, with around 55,000 new cases every year.<\/p>\n Lord Cameron told the newspaper he wanted to use his platform to support a call by Prostate Cancer Research, a charity which counts Mr Jones – founder of private members’ club chain Soho House – as a trustee, for screening to be offered to high-risk men.<\/p>\n The cancer is most common in older age – among men over 75. Cases in the under-50s are rare. It is also more common in black men.<\/p>\n “I don’t particularly like discussing my personal intimate health issues, but I feel I ought to,” Lord Cameron said.<\/p>\n “Let’s be honest. Men are not very good at talking about their health. We tend to put things off.”<\/p>\n But he said: “I sort of thought, well, this has happened to you, and you should lend your voice to it.”<\/p>\n Lord Cameron, prime minister between 2010 and 2016 and later foreign secretary in Rishi Sunak’s government, told the Times<\/a>: “I would feel bad if I didn’t come forward and say that I’ve had this experience. I had a scan. It helped me discover something that was wrong. It gave me the chance to deal with it.”<\/p>\n There is currently no screening programme for prostate cancer in the UK because of concerns about the accuracy of PSA tests.<\/p>\n But the peer’s intervention comes days after a major prostate cancer screening trial began in the country. It is aimed at finding the best way to detect the disease.<\/p>\n Around one in eight men will develop prostate cancer in their lives<\/a>, according to Prostate Cancer UK, with research showing it has overtaken breast cancer as the most commonly diagnosed form of the disease in the UK.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n