Health service management should reconsider its decision not to set up a prostate cancer screening programme for Irish men, a leading cancer specialist said yesterday.
Prof John Armstrong, a consultant oncologist at St Luke's Hospital and chairman of the Irish Cancer Society, said a study from Quebec found deaths from prostate cancer were "rare" if you have PSA (prostate specific antigen) screening. While that study did not have a sufficient number of participants, he said he believed screening should take place and would be beneficial, especially in men over 50.
The National Cancer Forum, which advises the Minister for Health, concluded in its latest strategy published in June that there was insufficient evidence to recommend a national prostate-cancer screening programme.
Prof Armstrong said, however, he was calling on them and the Health Service Executive to "reconsider" this decision.
"The National Cancer Forum examined this issue. However, I'm concerned that people like myself who are strong advocates of prostate screening were not invited to take part in the deliberations . . . And I know there are other colleagues who are of a similar view," he said.
It was important, he added, at least a pilot study be undertaken to see whether men in the Republic would come forward for screening and to see what level of cancer would be found.
"If it turns out that the major randomised trials which are taking place in Europe and America demonstrate a survival advantage for checking for prostate cancer by doing the blood test called PSA, we need to be ready to act upon that," he said.
"My concern arises from the fact that when the evidence arose that mammograms were a good way of detecting breast cancer early and of saving lives, it took us decades to implement it," he added. "If you don't get it [a pilot study] set up and the results come out and the results are in favour of PSA screening, we waste five to 10 years before we roll it out nationally. And that's five to 10 years in which 500 men die of prostate cancer every year."
Prof Armstrong was speaking at a national men's cancer conference at Croke Park.
Meanwhile, Prof Alan White, the world's first professor of men's health, based at Leeds Metropolitan University, said changes were required if more men were to be persuaded to come forward for regular health checks.
"You need change within the education of doctors and nurses so they attract people in. You also need people to go out where men are," said Prof White.