Amy Rylance shared her reaction to Jeremy Clarkson’s prostate cancer diagnosis (Image: Getty/Prostate Cancer UK)
By sharing his prostate cancer diagnosis and treatment in Clarkson’s Farm, Jeremy Clarkson is raising vital awareness about the disease with the millions of men and families watching. We’re grateful to him for sharing his story so openly. One in eight men will get prostate cancer. It’s the most commonly diagnosed cancer in the UK, and more than 64,000 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer every year.
Prostate cancer mainly affects men from age 50, with risk increasing as you get older. If your dad or brother has had prostate cancer, you are two and half times as likely to develop it and your risk starts from age 45. Black men are at double the risk of developing prostate cancer. One in four Black men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer, they develop it younger and they are twice as likely to die from it.
The earlier you catch prostate cancer, the easier it is to treat. But in its early stages, prostate cancer often doesn’t have any symptoms.
That’s why it’s crucial for men to understand their risk of the disease, and why Prostate Cancer UK developed our online Risk Checker. It takes just 30-seconds to complete and tells men if they’re at higher risk and what they can do about it.
If you are diagnosed with prostate cancer, there are a range of treatments available depending on the stage and aggressiveness of your cancer.
You may be offered active surveillance, a way of monitoring localised (early) prostate cancer, rather than treating it straight away. This is because localised prostate cancer often grows very slowly, so the side effects of treatment can cause more problems than the cancer itself.
For men with more aggressive disease that is found at an early stage the treatment options would typically by surgery or radiotherapy. Some men whose cancer is contained in a small area of the prostate will be suitable for focal therapy to treat just the cancerous tissue.
Men with aggressive disease are typically offered surgery or radiotherapy (Image: Getty)
Prostate Cancer UK has more information on our website, or you can get in touch with our Specialist Nurses on 0800 074 8383 to help understand the best choice for you.
Jeremy’s disease was found at an early stage, but, sadly, this is still not the experience of many men across the UK.
Every year, over 10,000 of our dads, brothers, sons and friends are diagnosed too late for a cure, and prostate cancer remains the most common cancer without a screening programme.
This has to change. The government took an important step forward recently in doubling its investment in Prostate Cancer UK’s TRANSFORM screening trial.
Through the trial, hundreds of thousands of men will be able to get the latest, most advanced tests for prostate cancer and we’ll generate the vital evidence needed to screen all men.
I encourage any men worried by Jeremy’s story to take our 30-second online Risk Checker.
– Amy Rylance, is Prostate Cancer UK’s director of health services, equity and improvement
