Olympian Sir Chris Hoy wants more tests for prostate cancer - should it happen?
Inside Health
BBC
4.4 • 575 Ratings
🗓️ 12 November 2024
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Olympic cyclist Sir Chris Hoy is calling for more prostate cancer testing after he was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Prostate cancer can often present without symptoms, and for people like Sir Chris, this can mean it isn't diagnosed until it has spread and become incurable. Unlike breast, bowel, or cervical cancer, there is currently no national screening programme that routinely invites men for prostate cancer testing. Instead, men over 50 can request what's known as a PSA blood test from their GP, but it's not automatically offered. Sir Chris wants that to change and is calling for the test to be made more easily available for men under 50, especially those with a family history of prostate cancer. But, expanding prostate screening is a divisive issue. While it could help detect cancer earlier in some cases, there are potential drawbacks. Inside Health's James Gallagher talks with Professor Frank Chinegwundoh, Consultant Urological Surgeon at Barts Health NHS Trust, Professor Hashim Ahmed, Chair of Urology at Imperial College London and Inside Health's resident GP Dr Margaret McCartney about the evidence for and against prostate cancer screening - and whether Sir Chris's campaign could and should change the guidance. This programme was produced in partnership with The Open University.
Presenter: James Gallagher Producer: Tom Bonnett Editor: Holly Squire
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, you're about to listen to a BBC podcast, and I'm Ed Gamble, host of another BBC podcast, |
| 0:05.4 | The Traitors Uncloaked. But my show is available only on BBC Sounds, just like Ellis and John's |
| 0:10.6 | Saturday bonus episodes, the Pop Top Ten podcast with Scott Mills and Ryland, and comedy specials |
| 0:16.2 | from the likes of Harriet Kemsley, Susie Ruffel and Rommas Shranger Nathan. However, and maybe I'm biased, it's really all about the traitors uncloked. |
| 0:24.3 | So for a whole bunch of exclusive scoops and podcasts, listen only on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:29.4 | Hello there and welcome to the Inside Health podcast. I'm James Gallagher. |
| 0:33.3 | Today, I want to focus on prostate cancer and whether we can save more lives from this disease, |
| 0:39.0 | because around one in eight men will find out they have prostate cancer at some point in their lifetime. |
| 0:45.4 | And I'm sure you've all seen or read the shocking news that Olympic cycling legend Sir Chris Hoy |
| 0:51.2 | discovered he has advanced disease. |
| 0:54.6 | It's been the toughest year of our life so far by some stretch. |
| 0:59.5 | September, 2023, completely out the blue. |
| 1:03.0 | I got the news that I had terminal illness, so I've got stage four prostate cancer. |
| 1:08.7 | So the prostate is usually about the size of a walnut, and it's part of the male reproductive |
| 1:14.3 | system. |
| 1:14.8 | So it makes the thick white fluid that gets mixed up with sperm to produce semen. |
| 1:19.4 | And as the cancer grows, it can affect your ability to urinate or to wee. |
| 1:24.9 | So symptoms can include needing to go to the toilet, |
| 1:29.6 | even at night, or straining, |
| 1:33.0 | or not really feeling empty even after going to the toilet. |
| 1:37.5 | But that doesn't happen for everybody, including Sir Chris. |
| 1:40.8 | All I had was a pain in my shoulder and a bit of pain at my ribs. |
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