Australian men facing a deadly prostate cancer wave

Australian men are failing to undergo screening tests despite facing a ‘tidal wave of risk’ of developing prostate cancer.

John Rogers, 70, is recovering from advanced prostate cancer. He is urging younger men to get their prostates checked yearly to avoid cancers become as advanced as his was when it was detected. Picture: John Feder

Australian men are facing a “tidal wave of risk” of developing prostate cancer but many are failing to undergo screening tests to check for the disease amid outdated health guidelines and low public awareness.

Prostate cancer has now overtaken breast cancer to become the most commonly diagnosed cancer in Australia, and the disease is projected to kill 3507 men this year.

Urologists say they are frustrated that many of their patients are presenting with advanced prostate cancer, and only around a third of cases that would benefit from treatment are being detected at an early stage when the disease is completely contained within the prostate.

Director of uro-oncology at Chris O’Brien Lifehouse Henry Woo said most men should start to have blood tests to check PSA levels from age 50 onwards but many doctors did not proactively recommend it.

“The real problem has been where the message about over­diagnosis of prostate cancer has created a complacency about the need for prostate cancer testing in general,” Professor Woo said.

“And as a result, some men have had very poor outcomes due to a late diagnosis.

“We need to move way from this narrative that the PSA blood test is a diagnostic test for prostate cancer. It’s actually a risk assessment tool.”

Doctors were inundated with requests for prostate cancer screening this week after cancer survivor Tim Baker wrote a searingly honest account of his treatment in The Weekend Australian that galvanised hundreds of men.

The Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia is calling for an urgent review of screening guidelines amid a spike in the number of men being diagnosed with high-risk disease.

The guidelines recommend that men with a family history of prostate cancer undergo PSA testing every two years commencing in their 40s, while men aged over 50 should discuss with their doctor testing options, and if they decide to go ahead, to test every two years.

The guidelines recommend against PSA testing for men over the age of 70.

PCFA chief executive Anne Savage said most Australians do not know or understand the prostate cancer testing guidelines.

“There are also increasing numbers of men over the age of 70 who are otherwise in good health are now being diagnosed at higher rates with metastatic advanced disease that holds very great risks for potentially claiming their lives,” she said, adding: “That is completely unacceptable.”

Cancer survivor John Rogers, 70, had his prostate removed earlier this year after being diagnosed with a high-grade, very large and aggressive tumour. Mr Rogers was under the impression he had been having PSA tests but discovered upon diagnosis that he had not been tested since 2018.

Mr Rogers wants other men to understand the importance of testing and is calling for public health campaigns. “I go down to my local doctors, and there’s a board up and it has on that board all these pamphlets, and there’s not one there for men’s health,” he said. “They should treat prostate cancer more seriously.

“Getting it early is the key. If I’d got mine diagnosed in 2018 and it was treated then it would have been a less invasive treatment. Get tested.”