One test could have prevented terminal prostate cancer, says patient

A former amateur rugby player, who has terminal prostate cancer, has said that he could have been diagnosed with the disease much earlier if he had undergone one simple test.

Kevin Williams, who was 55 when he was first diagnosed, is dealing with similar complications faced by Olympic legend Chris Hoy, 48, who announced in February that he was being treated for cancer.

However, after a scan last September showed a tumour in his shoulder, a second scan found the main cancer to be in his prostate – which has since spread to Hoy’s shoulder, pelvis, hip, ribs and spine.after his cancer also spread to his bones.

Williams, from Pyle, South Wales, had no symptoms before his diagnosis and was initially told by his GP that he had a bladder infection after passing blood in his urine.

“The local hospital did a cystoscopy [a procedure using a camera on the bladder] and reported a small polyp which they said they’d have me in to remove and that would be the end of things,” Williams told The i newspaper.

“It was only after booking a CT scan myself privately to be on the safe side, that I was told I had metastatic prostate cancer.”

Seven years later, after being placed on a key hormonal drug called abiraterone, Williams remains optimistic about his future but wants to emphasise the need for mass testing in the future.

“It’s frustrating as I should have been diagnosed much sooner, but it just shows that we need mass testing so that people are getting picked up at a time which gives them a really good chance of beating the disease,” he added.

According to the report, Williams did not receive a prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test, an examination which may have told doctors about his cancer earlier and could have prevented it from spreading.

The prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test is a blood test which is used to check for prostate conditions including prostate cancer or an enlarged prostate.

Routine PSA testing is not currently offered on the NHS, but patients may be offered a PSA test if a GP suspects they have prostate cancer. Men over the age of 50 can ask their GP for a PSA test, even if they do not have symptoms.

New research has found there is a significant variation between GP surgeries in the proportion of men with no symptoms (asymptomatic) who are given the test.

Researchers said that the variation “speaks to the ongoing lack of clarity regarding prostate cancer screening practice in the UK”.

“People have shown that if we can target the androgen receptor with drugs, patients can respond to that and it can keep the disease at bay for a number of years,” says Adam Sharp, a prostate oncologist at The Institute of Cancer Research, told The i newspaper.

Around 55,000 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer and around 12,000 men die from the disease each year in the UK.