Following these findings, UK ministers asked Parliament to consider instituting a national prostate cancer screening program. A reduction of deaths from prostate cancer by 20% would save 2,000 lives a year in the UK.
The Guardian reports:
‘Health minister Ann Keen said she had asked the UK national screening committee to review the evidence. "We look forward to examining this new evidence and are committed to having a prostate cancer screening program if and when screening and treatment techniques are sufficiently well developed," she said.’
Critics of a national screening program state that screening techniques in the UK are not advanced enough, and cannot distinguish between a cancer that poses a serious risk to a man’s health and one that will have little effect on him during his lifetime. Prostate cancer surgery can leave men with impotency and incontinency problems, and so some critics feel surgery should only be performed in serious risk cases.
My own father was diagnosed with prostate cancer two years ago and underwent surgery. He is now back to full health and has had none of the side effects. His cancer was only detected because of a health screening that he requested. Without this screening he might not be with me today.
By: Katherine Osgood
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