The 7 signs of prostate cancer you need to know as treatments surge

THE number of men having prostate cancer treatment has surged in the last year, new data has revealed.

It’s the most common cancer amongst men in the UK with over 40,000 new cases diagnosed each year.

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Now new figures from the NHS have revealed that more people than ever before are receiving urological checks.

Figures show that the number of men having treatment for the illness have jumped by more than a quarter in the last year.

Data revealed that almost 4,000 men received prostate cancer treatment in August (3,898)  compared to just over 3,000 in the same month last year (3,057).

Prostate cancer is very treatable if caught early and medics are now urging Brits to be aware of the signs in order to stop the illness in its tracks.

In most cases, the illness doesn’t have any symptoms until the growth is big enough to put pressure on the urethra – that tube you pee through.

Symptoms include:

1. Needing to urinate more often, especially at night
2. Needing to rush to the toilet
3. Difficulty in starting to pee
4. Weak flow
5. Straining and taking a long time while peeing
6. Feeling that your bladder hasn’t emptied fully
7. Blood in urine or blood in semen 

Many men’s prostates get larger as they age because of the non-cancerous conditions, prostate enlargement, and benign prostatic hyperplasia.

In fact, these two conditions are more common than prostate cancer – but that doesn’t mean the symptoms should be ignored.

The signs that cancer has spread include bone, back, or testicular pain, loss of appetite, and unexplained weight loss.

NHS Chief Executive Amanda Pritchard highlighted that talking about cancer saves live.

She said thanks to campaigns and tens of thousands more people coming forward for checks, the NHS has treated increasing numbers of men with prostate cancer over the last year.

“This is good news for men and their families because getting treated at an earlier stage dramatically increases your chances of survival – early detection of prostate cancer has a near 100% survival rate.

“We are determined to detect even more cancers at an earlier stage when they are easier to treat and we are continuing to introduce new and convenient ways for people to get checked, including through pharmacy checks on the high street and the rollout of one-stop shops for tests in the heart of local communities.

“This ‘Movember’, we are encouraging men to get checked when they have health concerns – it is really easy to assess your own risk of developing prostate cancer through the online risk checker,” she said.

After two years in a fall of diagnosis, in part due to the Covid pandemic, Director of Support & Influencing at Prostate Cancer UK, Chiara De Biase said it’s encouraging that treatments are bouncing back.

“We want to say a massive thank you to the NHS teams who are caring for record numbers of men.

“Covid has cast a long shadow over prostate cancer care, and despite these record referrals we need men to keep coming forward so they can be found and treated while their cancer is still curable.

“In the last 18 months, more than a million people have used our online risk checker, and we’re asking everyone to keep sharing it to help more men find out about their risk and what to do about it.”

You can check your prostate cancer risk with this online tool.