Prostate Cancer Screening Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department of Health and Social Care
Al Pinkerton
Main Page: Al Pinkerton (Liberal Democrat - Surrey Heath)Department Debates - View all Al Pinkerton's debates with the Department of Health and Social Care
Prostate Cancer Screening
Al Pinkerton Excerpts(3 days, 22 hours ago)
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Perran Moon (Camborne and Redruth) (Ind)
Meur ras, Dr Murrison. It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship. I thank the hon. Member for Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk (John Lamont) for introducing the debate, and thank the 232 constituents of Camborne, Redruth and Hayle who signed the petition.
A constituent of mine, Mike from Tolvaddon, was having a blood test for an unrelated condition when a nurse suggested adding a PSA. It detected an aggressive cancer that was fortunately treatable. That was unfortunately not the case for the husband of Jean from Tehidy Park, whose cancer was not diagnosed until it had already spread to his bones. Had he had testing, he might have been here today.
I warmly welcome the Government’s actions to establish, from 2027, the country’s first targeted prostate cancer screening programme and I welcome the £18 million investment in the Transform trial. Statistics often show that men in deprived communities have a lower prostate cancer prevalence than average, not necessarily because they do not have it but because deprivation reduces their access to testing, leaving them undiagnosed. I worry that will be the case for several of my constituents, given that we suffer some of the deepest deprivation in the country.
Dr Al Pinkerton (Surrey Heath) (LD)
Prostate Cancer UK has identified that men from deprived areas are 29% more likely to be diagnosed with prostate cancer only at a point after the cancer has already spread, which touches exactly on the point that the hon. Member is making. Does he agree that as well as having more sensitive diagnostic tests, we must make sure that the people who are most at risk can access those tests?
Perran Moon
I wholly agree: efforts must focus on those areas with high levels of deprivation, wherever they are. I urge Ministers to keep further targeted expansion of screening under active review and to act as swiftly as possible as the evidence develops.