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Patient calls for a screening test for prostate cancer for all men in Wales

A PROSTATE cancer patient is hoping to offer all men over 50 in Wales a PSA test in a bid to detect the disease.

Reg Williams, who founded the South Wales-based Prostate Screening Trust, is exploring the possibility of using a mobile PSA testing machine which can give a result in just 20 minutes.

He hopes to be able to offer the test throughout Wales in the absence of a national screening programme.

The new technology uses a finger-prick blood sample to test levels of the prostate specific antigen. Raised levels can be an indication of prostate cancer and other benign conditions.

Mr Williams, 59, a council job advisor, said: “A lot of men, particularly in parts of the valleys, want to have a PSA test but are told to come back when they have symptoms.

“But that can be too late. I’d never had any symptoms, but I have an aggressive prostate cancer.”

A PSA test checks the level of prostate specific antigen – a natural chemical produced by the prostate gland – in the blood. Any condition that irritates or damages the prostate gland can cause leakage of PSA into the blood.

The test is the only prostate cancer test available, but as it is unable to distinguish between cancer and other prostate conditions it is not routinely available. It is also unable to distinguish between the less aggressive and the life-threatening forms of the disease.

Two large studies are currently assessing the viability of using the PSA test to screen for cancer.

Mr Williams, who lives near Chepstow, was diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer in 2005 and was given five years to live.

The cancer, which has spread outside his prostate, is currently under control.

Mr Williams hopes to be able to offer men over 50 a PSA test, using this new technology, providing they fit certain criteria.

And he says if the PSA test is positive it will give men the option to seek medical help for any prostate problems.

Mr Williams said: “So many men I have spoken to about the disease have been picked up because they were able to have a PSA test after asking for it or because they have private medical care.

“Men are not being routinely tested in the way that women are for cancer. Men should be given the option to have the test.”

The Prostate Screening Trust hopes to unveil the technology in a presentation to politicians at the Senedd next month.

Anna Jewell, head of policy and campaigns at the Prostate Cancer Charity, said: “The Prostate Cancer Charity understands the strong views held by many people that a PSA-based screening programme should be introduced.

“The charity does not currently support a PSA-based national screening programme for prostate cancer because the test is not a reliable screening tool and, as yet, there is no scientific evidence that such a programme would save lives.

“The introduction of a national screening programme for prostate cancer using the PSA test, at this stage, would suggest to men that screening for prostate cancer would be of benefit to the majority of men in the UK and that it would save lives.

“This would not necessarily be the case, as a screening programme for prostate cancer using the PSA test could cause more harm than good to some men.

“This is because some healthy men would be diagnosed with a cancer, through the screening programme, and go on to receive treatment – and experience the associated side effects – for a harmless cancer that would otherwise have gone undetected during their lifetime.

“Furthermore, the evidence currently available does not clearly show that a screening programme, using the PSA test, would save lives.”