SIR Chris Hoy has claimed “potentially millions of lives” can be saved if the screening age for prostate cancer is lowered.
The six-time Olympic cycling champion revealed last month in a Sunday Times interview that his cancer is terminal after he first made public in February that he was undergoing treatment, including chemotherapy.
A tumour was found in Hoy’s shoulder and a second scan found primary cancer in his prostate, which has metastasised to his bones.
During a BBC documentary titled Sir Chris Hoy: Finding Hope to be broadcast on Tuesday, the 48-year-old called for a change to the current screening.
The NHS has no national screening programme for prostate cancer, but men aged 50 and over can ask their GP for a free prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test.
“I believe that the screening for men with a strong family history of prostate cancer, should be a lot younger, a lot,” Hoy said.
“It’s logical to me why would you not just get the test a little bit earlier, catch it before you need to have any major treatment? So to me it seems a no-brainer.
“Why would they not reduce the age, bring the age down, allow more men to just go in and get a blood test?”
Asked if that was something he could change, Hoy replied: “I hope so.
“I hope, well maybe not, maybe people seeing this or hearing about my story and then just by them asking their GP will create enough of a surge of interest, that people that make the decisions will go ‘you know what, we need to address this’.
“And in the long term this will actually, even from a logistical point of view would save potentially millions of lives in the long term. And why wouldn’t you, you know, why wouldn’t you?”
UK Health Secretary Wes Streeting said Hoy “makes a very compelling case” and the UK Government is "actively looking at" lowering the age for NHS England.
Streeting told BBC Radio 4’s the Today programme: “I’ve asked the NHS to look at whether we are currently in the right place when it comes to screening so that’s something that we’re actively looking at.
“And actually one of many reasons why Chris Hoy’s openness about his own experience with cancer, his family’s experience with cancer, I think has been so impactful because moments like this, especially where you’ve got a high-profile case and someone who’s willing to talk as openly as he is about his situation, I think it prompts a good debate about whether or not we’ve got the screening and the early diagnosis in the right place.
