A CAMPAIGNER against a cancer which kills 15,000 men a year is furious that politicians won't heed his call for a screening programme.

Derek Hartley-Brown, Poole-based chairman of the Prostate Cancer Awareness Association, claims men are being treated as second class citizens over the condition.

He is angry that health secretary Alan Johnson was not there to answer his questions at Britain Against Cancer, an annual conference held by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Cancer.

"From my point of view it was an utter disaster. They're doing absolutely nothing for men and prostate cancer," said Mr Hartley-Brown.

"Thirty-five thousand men a year get prostate cancer. Fifteen thousand die because they don't know they've got it."

He said the lack of official response added weight to newspaper claims that men were second class citizens when it came to cancer treatment.

Prostate cancer has in recent years claimed the lives of high-profile figures such as Harry Secombe, Bob Monkhouse, Fred Dibnah and George Carman.

In June 2007, computer technology enabled Bob Monkhouse to appear posthumously in an advert warning men to be alert for the symptoms.

He was heard saying: "As a comedian, I've died many deaths. Prostate cancer, I don't recommend."

But the government has resisted calls for the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screening test to be made routine.

Mr Hartley-Brown, whose life was saved after he insisted on having a PSA test, said: "They're saying the PSA test is not 100 per cent, which we all know, but it's 94 per cent and saved my life and many others and they're just not bothering about it."

He said he was also unable to interest backbenchers and opposition spokesmen in a screening programme.

No one from the Department of Health was available to comment, but the department has previously said it is committed to introducing a national screening programme "when techniques are sufficiently well-developed".

Symptoms of the disease can include passing water often, especially at night; the sudden urgent need for the toilet; blood in urine; inability to get or maintain an erection; and pain in the lower back, spine or hip.

Factsheet

  • The prostate is about the size of a walnut and lies at the base of a man's bladder. It is a gland that produces the liquid part of semen.
  • Each year, around 27,000 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer in the UK, making it the most common cancer in men. It mainly affects older men.
  • The front of your prostate surrounds your urethra, the tube that carries urine from your bladder and out through your penis. Any change in the size or shape of the prostate can narrow this tube, making it difficult for you to urinate.
  • Prostate cancer often has no symptoms, particularly in the early stages.
  • Some men may never have any symptoms or problems from the disease. Some types of prostate cancer can be slow-growing whereas others are a faster-growing and aggressive form and can be more harmful.
  • You are more likely to get symptoms if and when your cancer grows in the prostate gland and narrows the urethra. Symptoms then include: problems urinating such as difficulty in starting to pass urine, a weak, sometimes intermittent flow of urine; dribbling of urine before and after urinating; a frequent or urgent need to pass urine or a need to get up several times in the night to urinate; a feeling that your bladder is not completely empty; pain when you orgasm; and rarely, blood in the urine.

If you experience symptoms, contact your GP for advice. If prostate cancer is found early, it can often be cured.