New row between doctors and charity over prostate cancer risk test
A dispute has arisen between doctors and the charity Prostate Cancer UK over the online cancer risk test.
According to doctors, the test is causing concern among men, who are then flooding GP practices with requests for unnecessary appointments.
The test, which asks questions about age, family history and race, informs any man 50 and older that he or she is at “higher risk” of prostate cancer, regardless of other variables.
Prostate cancer primarily affects older men, but only one in 54 between the ages of 50 and 59 will be diagnosed. This rises to one in 19 for men between the ages of 60 and 69, and one in 11 for men aged 70 and over.
The cancer, which kills more than 10,000 men each year, is more common in black men and in men with a family history of the disease.
A row has broken out between doctors and the charity Prostate Cancer UK (website pictured) over their online cancer risk test
Doctors say the test, which asks questions about age, family history and race, is causing men to worry, who are then flooding doctors’ offices with requests for unnecessary appointments (stock photo above)
Public health expert Dr Ash Paul called the risk assessor, which is available on the Prostate Cancer UK website, ‘one of the biggest scams going on right now’.
He added: ‘Over two million patients have already used the risk checker – guess how many patients are now clogging up GP surgeries? It’s unethical and wrong, in my opinion.’
Prostate Cancer UK, one of the country’s leading cancer charities, claims its online test can tell men whether they are at risk of the disease ‘in just 30 seconds’, by asking ‘three quick questions’.
However, this newspaper has found that the test puts a white 50-year-old man with no direct family history of the disease in the same risk category as a black 74-year-old whose brother or father has had prostate cancer.
Both men would be given the same advice: go to the GP. The only difference is that the patient at highest risk is ‘strongly advised’ to seek help.
Amy Rylance of Prostate Cancer UK said the Risk Checker ‘provides people with balanced facts’ and ‘helps every man make an informed choice about whether a test is right for him.’
‘The information a man finds on the Risk Checker is consistent with official government and NHS guidance.’
