The actor Colin McFarlane has urged black men to take part in a prostate cancer screening trial so that further evidence can be gathered to support a screening programme in the future.<\/p>\n
On Friday, the UK’s National Screening Committee said most men in the UK should not be tested for the disease because a screening programme was “likely to cause more harm than good”.<\/p>\n
Speaking on BBC Breakfast the Dark Knight and Doctor Who actor, who was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2022 said he was “so disappointed” with the decision.<\/p>\n
One in eight men are affected by prostate cancer, and for black men, the risk doubles to one in four, according to charity Prostate Cancer UK.<\/p>\n
The committee recommended that screening should only be offered to men between the ages of 45-61 if they have specific genetic mutations called BRCA variants.<\/p>\n
A screening programme would rely on a blood test called a PSA, followed by scans of the prostate and a biopsy, but this can miss deadly cancers and detect those that never need treatment.<\/p>\n
The committee said there were “uncertainties” about the impact of screening for black men due to a lack of clinical trials.<\/p>\n
Lincolnshire-based McFarlane, said: “12,000 men a year die of prostate cancer, but 10,000 men a year are diagnosed too late for a cure. That’s outrageous. That should not be happening in this day and age.”<\/p>\n
“Right now, the PSA is your best weapon”, the actor said, who explained that he was feeling well and was having blood tests every three months and an MRI once a year.<\/p>\n
Chiara De Biase from Prostate Cancer UK, who appeared alongside McFarlane on BBC Breakfast said the charity was also very disappointed.<\/p>\n
“It has been three years in the making and we were actually the only organisation to submit the scientific evidence because we thought it was safe enough,” she said.<\/p>\n
Ms De Biase said she felt “deep disappointment” for the black community, but said the charity had to be respectful of the science.<\/p>\n
“We simply don’t have sufficient evidence, particularly for black men who have been woefully underrepresented in research,” she said.<\/p>\n
The charity is funding a research trial called Transform<\/a> which is looking to find the safest, most accurate and cost-effective way to screen men for prostate cancer.<\/p>\n McFarlane urged black men to sign up for the trial.<\/p>\n The trial is recruiting men aged 50-74, with a lower age limit of 45 for black men.<\/p>\n “If you’re between the age of 45 and 70, get hold of Prostate Cancer UK and go on their Transform programme to get this evidence that they say they’re missing,” the actor said.<\/p>\n He also urged GPs not to turn men away who asked for a PSA test.<\/p>\n “When a man is brave enough to come into your surgery, please don’t turn them away, please don’t say you’ve got no pain, you’ve got no symptoms \u2026we don’t need to test you.<\/p>\n “I have no pain, I have no symptoms, but I do have prostate cancer. If you wait for pain and symptoms, it’s spread,” he said.<\/p>\n Listen to highlights from Lincolnshire on BBC Sounds<\/a>, watch the latest episode of Look North<\/a> or tell us about a story you think we should be covering here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Download the BBC News app from the App Store<\/a> for iPhone and iPad or Google Play<\/a> for Android devices<\/p>\n More on this storyRelated internet links<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The actor Colin McFarlane has urged black men to take part in a prostate cancer screening trial so…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":314701,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[140204,139440,49,48,140203,84,116168,54687,105687,116165],"class_list":{"0":"post-314700","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-bbc-breakfast","9":"tag-black-men","10":"tag-ca","11":"tag-canada","12":"tag-colin-mcfarlane","13":"tag-health","14":"tag-national-screening-committee","15":"tag-prostate-cancer","16":"tag-prostate-cancer-screening","17":"tag-prostate-cancer-uk"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314700","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=314700"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314700\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/314701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=314700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=314700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=314700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}