David Cameron has disclosed he was treated for prostate cancer and has called for a targeted screening programme.<\/p>\n
The former prime minister said he had a prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test, which looks for proteins associated with the form of the disease. The result was high and he subsequently had a biopsy that revealed the cancer.<\/p>\n
Lord Cameron, 59, told the Times: \u201cYou always hope for the best. You have a high PSA score \u2013 that\u2019s probably nothing.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have an MRI scan with a few black marks on it. You think, \u2018Ah, that\u2019s probably OK.\u2019 But when the biopsy comes back, and it says you have got prostate cancer.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou always dread hearing those words. And then literally as they\u2019re coming out of the doctor\u2019s mouth you\u2019re thinking, \u2018Oh, no, he\u2019s going to say it. He\u2019s going to say it. Oh God, he said it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
The former Conservative party leader was urged to get tested by his wife, Samantha, after the couple heard the founder of Soho House, Nick Jones, speaking about his diagnosis on the radio, the Times reported.<\/p>\n
Cameron received focal therapy for treatment, in which electrical pulses target and destroy cancer cells.<\/p>\n
He has called on the government to introduce screening to detect cases earlier, when treatment is more likely to succeed.<\/p>\n
The peer said: \u201cI 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t particularly like discussing my personal intimate health issues, but I feel I ought to. Let\u2019s be honest. Men are not very good at talking about their health. We tend to put things off.\u201d<\/p>\n
Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in males in the UK, with about 55,000 new cases every year.<\/p>\n
There is no screening programme for the form of the disease in the UK because of concerns about the accuracy of PSA tests.<\/p>\n