Former British prime minister David Cameron has revealed he was diagnosed with prostate cancer.
Speaking to The Times, Cameron, 59, explained how he was initially urged to get checked by his wife, Samantha, after they both heard a radio interview with Soho House founder Nick Jones, whose own prostate cancer was detected by a test.
After taking a prostate-specific antigen test (PSA), which looks for proteins associated with prostate cancer, Cameron said his results came back worryingly high, and a biopsy eventually confirmed cancer.
Former British prime minister David Cameron. Credit: Getty Images
“You have an MRI scan with a few black marks on it. You think, ‘Ah, that’s probably OK,’ Cameron told The Times. But when a doctor confirmed he had cancer, “you always dread hearing those words. And then literally, as they’re coming out of the doctor’s mouth, you’re thinking, ‘Oh, no, he’s going to say it. He’s going to say it. Oh God, he said it.’”
Cameron said he then faced a decision to watch and wait or potentially undergo treatment, which can have serious side effects such as erectile dysfunction and incontinence.
He told The Times he was also mindful that his older brother, Alexander, had died at the same age of pancreatic cancer, which “focuses the mind”.
Cameron said he eventually opted for a less intrusive “focal” therapy, which uses electric pulses delivered by needles to eliminate cancerous cells.