Lord David Cameron has revealed he was treated for prostate cancer as he called for a targeted screening programme.
The ex-Prime Minister, 59, said that he found out about the diagnosis after his wife Samantha urged him to have tests.
She had heard about Soho House founder Nick Jones’s struggle with the disease on the radio.
In an interview with the Times, Cameron said he went and had a prostate-specific antigen test, which looks for proteins associated with prostate cancer that came out worryingly high.
He added: “I want to, as it were, come out. I want to add my name to the long list of people calling for a targeted screening programme.
“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.
“We’re embarrassed to talk about something like the prostate, because it’s so intricately connected with sexual health and everything else.
“I sort of thought, well, this has happened to you, and you should lend your voice to it.
“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.”
He told the Times: “You always hope for the best. You have an MRI scan with a few black marks on it. You think, ‘Ah, that’s probably OK.’
“But when the biopsy comes back, and it says you have got prostate cancer? You always dread hearing those words.
David Cameron has revealed that he was diagnosed with prostate cancer last year.
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The former Prime Minister was successfully treated and is now backing calls for a national screening programme on the NHS.
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“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’.”
Cameron said that following his diagnosis, he wanted to “add his name” to the long list of people calling for a targeted screening programme, throwing his weight behind a fresh push
Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in males in the UK, with around 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.
Cameron and Samantha, 54, have three children - Nancy, 21, Arthur, 19, and Florence, 15. Their first child Ivan, who was severely disabled, died at the age of six.
During his time in No 10, he was a vocal supporter of prostate cancer awareness.
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, which has committed £16 million in funding, with the remainder coming from charity Prostate Cancer UK.
The launch comes as the UK National Screening Committee 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. We’ve reached a tipping point in the UK, with too many men dying from a curable disease and worse outcomes for men at higher risk like black men and men from working class communities.
“Prostate cancer is the last major cancer without a screening programme, and we need change now.”
