Newsreader Dermot Murnaghan has called for improved prostate cancer screenings, saying if diagnoses like his own are caught sooner then it will save the NHS money further down the line.
The former Sky News and BBC broadcaster, 67, announced he’d been diagnosed with stage four prostate cancer this June, meaning cancerous cells have spread from the prostate to other areas of his body.
Murnaghan called on men to demand a blood test to measure prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels and for the government to actively offer screenings to high-risk groups or those who have symptoms.
Currently, screening for prostate cancer is not recommended in the UK because the PSA test – that measures a protein produced by the prostate gland – is not accurate enough.
Speaking to Anna Jones on Sky News, Murnaghan said he understands PSA tests are getting increasingly more accurate and should be offered in the same way screenings for other types of cancers are in the UK.
“They might cost a little bit more money, but think about the money you save,” he said. “Treating people who get to my stage, there’s an awful lot of things that are being thrown at me that are costing a lot of money.”
The broadcaster continued: “As in so many other cancers, if you are diagnosed much, much earlier, then of course you save money further down the line.”
Murnaghan, who’s been married to his wife Maria for almost 36 years and has four children, said he finished his chemotherapy treatment in early July and is currently awaiting the results.
The broadcaster previously shared he is responding positively to his medical team’s excellent treatment.
There are around 55,100 new prostate cancer cases in the UK every year, around 150 every day, according to Cancer Research UK. About 12,000 men die from prostate cancer every year.
Needing to wee urgently, struggling to wee, erectile dysfunction and finding blood in wee or semen are all symptoms of the disease.
Prostate cancer can develop when cells in the prostate start to grow in an uncontrolled way. In some cases the cancer grows too slowly to cause any problems and because of this, many men with the cancer will never need treatment, according to Prostate Cancer UK.
However, in other cases prostate cancer does grow quickly and is more likely to spread - meaning it is more likely to cause problems and will need treatment to stop it spreading.
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