Prostate cancer is most commonly diagnosed cancer across UK, study finds | Cancer
Prostate cancer has now overtaken breast cancer to become the most commonly diagnosed type of cancer across the UK, according to a leading charity.
There will be 64,425 diagnoses of prostate cancer and 61,640 new cases of breast cancer detected in 2022, according to an analysis of NHS figures by Prostate Cancer UK.
The analysis revealed a discrepancy at what stage men were diagnosed with prostate cancer; While 31% of men in Scotland were diagnosed with stage 4 prostate cancer, the rate for men in England was 21%.
Around one in eight men in the UK will be affected by prostate cancer in their lifetime, and around 12,200 people die from the disease each year.
One in four black men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime. They also have a higher risk of late-stage diagnosis compared to their white counterparts.
Prostate Cancer UK has highlighted the apparent “postcode lottery” involved in testing and diagnosing the disease. Prostate specific antigen (PSA) testing rates were found to be highest in the south-east of England and lowest in the north-west.
Men living in higher-poverty areas were 29% more likely to develop cancer than those living in wealthier areas.
Chiara De Biase, Director of Healthcare, Equality and Improvement, Prostate Cancer UK, said risk awareness campaigns had played a big role in the overall increase, leading to “more men being diagnosed and treated than ever before”.
“Prostate cancer is now the most common cancer in the UK, yet men face deeply unfair inequalities across the country and their experiences vary greatly depending on where they live,” De Biase said. “We urgently need an early detection program that will address these regional disparities.”
He added: “Mass risk awareness campaigns have played a big part in causing this increase, for example in February 2022 we launched a national campaign with the NHS to help men across the UK control their risk of prostate cancer.
“We also know that when celebrities such as Bill Turnbull, Nick Owen and Colin McFarlane share their prostate cancer stories, men can be encouraged to get tested themselves.”
Prostate cancer became the most common cancer in England last year, but new figures from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have enabled UK-wide analysis. There have been 5,608 diagnoses of prostate cancer in Scotland, a 30% increase on previous figures.
Ian Walker, Director of Cancer Research UK, said the figures could be affected by over-diagnosis of the disease and that “PSA tests in asymptomatic men can detect cancers that will not cause any harm”.
Prostate cancer screening should not be offered to the vast majority of men in the UK, a panel of expert government health advisers said in November.
The UK National Screening Committee has instead recommended that there should be a targeted screening program for men with a confirmed BRCA1 or BRCA2 missense gene variant; This means these people are at greater risk of developing faster-growing and aggressive cancers at an earlier age. It was stated that men in this category can be screened every two years between the ages of 45 and 61.
This is despite campaigners and charities calling for screening to be offered to men at higher risk of developing the disease, such as black men and those with a family history of cancer.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: “We are committed to improving outcomes for men with prostate cancer and we know that many men in poor communities are diagnosed with the disease at a later stage when it is more difficult to treat.
“Last week the NHS expanded access to abiraterone, a treatment that can significantly improve survival rates and give patients valuable extra years of life, and we are also making progress in reducing waiting times for cancer – a further 213,000 patients were diagnosed with suspected cancer in the last 12 months.”
