Hancock: Taking genome test may have saved my life

MATT HANCOCK has revealed that he is at heightened risk of developing prostate cancer as he urges the NHS to roll out gene testing more widely.

The Health Secretary said he has undergone tests that show that he has a higher rate of the disease than average, despite no family history of the cancer.

Mr Hancock called for a national debate about the biggest ethical questions concerning a revolution in genomics, as he revealed that he was shocked by his own results.

The tests found he has a 15 per cent chance of suffering prostate cancer by the age of 75 – a risk about 1.5 times greater than the average man.

In a speech to The Royal Society, the Health Secretary will say the test may have saved his life, as he called for the urgent roll-out of “predictive testing” across the NHS.

Mr Hancock is expected to say that too much data was “locked away” in research labs, as a result of bureaucratic obstacles and scientists refusing to share it. He will also call it an “outrage” that findings that could save lives were not more widely shared, urging researchers to “publish or be damned”.

Mr Hancock, 40, has recently undergone tests to examine his own genes. He will say that he was glad to find that for most of 16 diseases tested, he had a lower risk than average but was left “surprised and concerned” when he was found to be at higher risk of prostate cancer.

“I would never have found this out if it hadn’t been for the test. Tragically, so many men don’t find out until it’s too late. This test may have saved my life,” he will say, calling for “predictive testing in the NHS as soon as possible.”

Currently the NHS offers gene testing when patients are thought to be at higher risk because of a family history.

The Government has set out an ambition to sequence 5 million genomes over the next five years to build a diagnostic, predictive, preventive and personalised health and care service.

So far 100,000 genomes have been sequenced, with one in four participants with rare diseases receiving a diagnosis for the first time.