Prostate cancer overtakes breast cancer as UK’S third biggest killer

PROSTATE cancer has overtaken breast cancer to become the third deadliest type of the disease in Britain, research has found.

For the first time, figures show that more men are dying from prostate cancer than women from breast cancer, amid warnings from charities and health campaigners that more investment is needed to halt the disease.

The research, published today by Prostate Cancer UK, revealed that 11,819 men died of prostate cancer in 2015, compared with 11,442 women who died of breast cancer.

To halt the rise, the charity estimates that more than £120million in funding is needed to make sufficient advances in research, screening and treatment.

Although the mortality rate for breast cancer has fallen steadily since the Nineties, the number of men dying from prostate cancer has risen by more than 20 per cent in the same period.

Lung cancer and bowel cancer remain the deadliest cancers in the UK, with more than 50,000 people dying of the diseases annually.

Whilst welcoming advances in breast cancer treatment, Prostate Cancer UK said that levels of funding for prostate cancer had been significantly lower, meaning efforts to tackle the disease were trailing behind.

Since 2002, more than £520million has been spent tackling breast cancer, more than double the amount for prostate cancer. Just 72,513 scientific papers on prostate cancer have been published since 1999, compared with more than 146,000 on breast cancer.

“With half the investment and half the research, it’s not surprising that progress in prostate cancer is lagging behind,” said Angela Culhane, the charity’s chief executive. “However, the good news is that many of these developments could be applied to prostate cancer and we’re confident that with the right funding, we can dramatically reduce deaths within the next decade.”

Due to an ageing population, the number of men dying from prostate cancer has continued to rise despite survival rates being 2.5 times higher than they were 30 years ago.

Prostate Cancer UK has recently invested £2million into developing tests it hopes will eventually be adopted into a national screening programme.

Prostate cancer is the most common form of cancer for men in the UK, with 47,000 diagnoses annually.

♦ Women have been wrongly given the all-clear for cervical cancer after NHS screening blunders, with thousands of test results to be re-examined.

Southend University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Basildon and Thurrock University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust have written to patients stating that 900 tests have been checked, resulting in 17 women needing to be seen again. Screening services said 2,500 samples taken between April 2016 and September 2017 were now being rescreened.