Former U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron says he has been treated for prostate cancer

David Cameron said he plans to use his position in the House of Lords to push for change in detecting prostate cancer. (Phil Lewis/SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images via CNN Newsource)

LONDON — Former U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron is calling for a targeted screening program for prostate cancer after revealing that he has been treated for the disease.

Speaking to British newspaper The Times in an interview published Sunday, Cameron, 59, revealed that his wife Samantha had encouraged him to get a test for prostate cancer.

“You always hope for the best,” said Cameron, who initially went for a prostate specific antigen (PSA) test, which evaluates levels of proteins linked to prostate cancer.

His result was concerningly high, but Cameron said he remained optimistic. “You have a high PSA score – that’s probably nothing,” he said.

“You have an MRI scan with a few black marks on it. You think, ‘Ah, that’s probably OK.’ But when the biopsy comes back, and it says you have got prostate cancer?” he added.

“You always dread hearing those words. And then literally as they’re coming out of the doctor’s mouth you’re thinking, ‘Oh, no, he’s going to say it. He’s going to say it. Oh God, he said it,’” said Cameron, who now sits in the House of Lords, the upper chamber of the British parliament.

After receiving focal therapy, which involves using needles to transmit electric pulses that break down the cancer, Cameron decided to join calls for more screening.

Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer in men in the United States, behind non-melanoma skin cancers.

About 11 per cent of American men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime, while around 2.5 per cent will die from it, according to the National Cancer Institute.

Most prostate cancers grow very slowly, and it typically takes at least 10 years for cancer that hasn’t spread beyond the prostate to cause significant symptoms.

Most prostate cancers picked up by blood tests that measure levels of PSA will not harm men during their lifetimes and don’t require treatment, according to the results of a long-running U.K. study published in 2023.

As a result, many experts question whether the costs of mass screening programs outweigh the benefits, due to the risk of misdiagnosis and unnecessary treatments.

But Cameron agrees with the charity Prostate Cancer Research that a program targeting high-risk men, which makes use of advances in medical science such as the focal therapy that he received, would be beneficial to public health.

“The circumstances are changing,” he told The Times. “The arguments are changing, and so it’s a really good moment to have another look at this.”

Cameron now plans to use his position in the House of Lords to push for change.

“I’ve got a platform. This is something we’ve really got to think about, talk about, and if necessary, act on,” he said.