The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Men told cancer test is pointless
SELF- EXAMINING for testicular cancer does more harm than good, it has been claimed.
For decades men have been told to carry out regular self-examinations but a leading GP has now challenged orthodox opinion and claimed that, not only do such checks rarely detect cancer, they can instead cause a panic that takes up valuable NHS time.
Writing in the British Medical Journal, London GP Dr Keith Hopcroft claims that self-examinations are “an activity based purely on well-meaning whimsy, with the potential to do harm”.
Speaking yesterday, he said: “Medicine has gone from tradition to being evidencebased and I thought that as this advice is regularly repeated I should look back and see where it came from.
“There is no evidence behind it whatsoever. Testicular cancer is much rarer that is thought so there is no statistical base for it.”
He said self-examination did not become standard practice until the 1970s, after it was suggested in a film made by the American Urological Association.
“It was almost a joke but it got picked up by one of the armed forces in the US and started to become orthodoxy” he added.
Dr Hopcroft said men should only check for testicular cancer if they are experiencing other symptoms. Otherwise he warned that routine checking will only cause alarm if benign scrotal swellings are discovered.
In his article he writes that men carrying out a self-examination after noticing other symptoms is “common sense” rather than proof regular self-examinations save lives.
“My argument is that feeling around in the absence of any symptoms is risible
“Men discover normal abnormalities which causes incredible anxieties, which can then be transferred to the doctor, who then orders tests and takes up hospital time from people who may really need it.”
He said that medical evidence has discredited both the need for regular selfexaminations for testicular cancer by men and for breast cancer by women but that the practice is still encouraged by many cancer charities.
Hazel Nunn, Cancer Research UK’S head of health information, said: “It’s a good idea to get to know your body so that you notice any changes and can report them promptly to your doctor. Changes to your testicles are no exception.
“Survival rates for testicular cancer are excellent, but finding the disease earlier is likely to lead to more straightforward treatment.”
Ritchie Marshall from male cancer awareness charity Cahonas Scotland said: “In a Scotland, with such an unenviable health record, it defies logic to create another barrier to men accessing health services.
“The majority of self-examination checks will be benign. That is to be welcomed, both in that prevention is better than cure and also in the respect that it has increased the number of traditionally reluctant Scottish men from actually accessing a GP or health centre.”
NHS Tayside consultation clinical oncologist Dr Phyllis Windon said: “In the majority of cases that I have treated the men had discovered a lump in their testicles through self-examination triggered by a feeling of discomfort or change in that area.
“In this instance it is important that men approach their GP immediately for further investigation.”