Cancer Patients Getting Younger
Traditionally the disease, which affects one in 12 UK males and kills 10,000 men every year in Britain, has been associated with older patients but now men in their forties and even thirties are being diagnosed.
Speaking at an information evening for GPs at the newly opened Nottingham Prostate Clinic leading cancer specialists Duncan Harriss and Owen Cole (pictured above) said they were seeing significantly younger patients than they were a decade ago.
Mr Cole said: “I have just diagnosed one man aged 38 with prostate cancer and it’s becoming more and more common to see men in their forties.”
Mr Cole and Mr Harriss, both consultant urological surgeons at Nottingham City Hospital, have opened the Nottingham Prostate Clinic at the BMI Castle Consulting Suite in the Old Market Square, to allow men the opportunity to have their prostate health checked without the need for a GP referral.
Family doctors from across Nottinghamshire attended the clinic, the first of its kind in the East Midlands, on Thursday evening (JAN29) to find out more from the consultants.
The surgeons urged the GPs to perform PSA (prostate specific antigen) tests on their patients if requested. The simple blood test can reveal if there is a risk of cancer, but some doctors are unwilling to perform it.
Mr Harriss said: “Some GPs are reluctant to perform the tests as they aren’t convinced of the test’s accuracy but the latest studies are showing the tests really are very accurate and we believe it to be a very good test for prostate cancer.
“A lot of people seem to have the misconception that PSA is a bad screening test when in fact it isn’t. The latest studies, which have looked at 100,000 patients both in Europe and America, have revealed the PSA test to be a very good screening test.
“I would like to dispel the misconception that some GPs hold that the PSA test is a bad thing which causes confusion in patients. It isn’t, it is a good test that is very useful for detecting prostate cancer.”
Some of the GPs agreed with the specialists that routine PSA testing should be offered to all patients over 50 as part of a well man check.
Both consultants also added that anyone with a family history of cancer should certainly be checked and men with a female relative with breast cancer were twice as likely to get prostate cancer than men with no breast cancer in their families.
To find out more about prostate cancer call the clinic on 0115 9895643 or visit www.nottinghamprostateclinic.co.uk