This was revealed by the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, David Cameron, in an interview with the newspaper The times who was diagnosed with prostate cancer a year ago. Like so many other men his age (59), it was his wife, Samantha Cameron, who finally convinced him to undergo screening tests that he was very reluctant to undergo.
Cameron performed the PSA (prostate specific antigen), a test that measures the level of a protein produced by the prostate in the blood. A suspiciously high level led to a scan and from there to a biopsy that confirmed the cancer.
“You’re always afraid of hearing those words and all of a sudden, when they start coming out of the doctor’s mouth, you think, oh, no, he’s going to say them, he’s going to say them…” Cameron explains in the interview.
The former Prime Minister of the Conservative Party, who recently returned to politics to occupy the position of Foreign Minister, has decided to exploit his public prominence to support the campaign calling for tests such as the PSA which could be administered to all men over fifty, through the United Kingdom’s National Health Service.
“I don’t like to talk publicly about my health problems, but in this case I thought I had to,” says Cameron, recalling that every year in his country 12,000 men die of prostate cancer. “Let’s be honest. Men don’t do well when it comes to their health. We tend to delay making decisions. We’re embarrassed to talk about the prostate because it’s linked to sexual health,” Cameron explained.
The former prime minister’s brother died of pancreatic cancer and Cameron decided from the beginning to undergo treatment.
But when it came to supporting the campaign he made a calmer analysis. Some experts have argued that the cost of launching a massive testing program outweighs the possible benefits. Many older men may end up dying “of” prostate cancer, but not “due to” prostate cancer. Its slow evolution means many men suffer from it without a direct fatal consequence, but if everyone was alerted to a test, Britain’s public health system would be overwhelmed by the demand for treatment, experts say.
Cameron, however, has publicly supported the testing group. “It seems strange to me that there’s even a debate about whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing. Why wouldn’t you want to know?” he defends.
