Former prime minister David Cameron has revealed he was diagnosed with prostate cancer and is now urging the government to introduce a targeted screening programme.
Cameron said he took a prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test, which checks for proteins linked to prostate cancer. His PSA level was high. A later biopsy confirmed he had the disease.
Speaking to The Times, the 59-year-old said the diagnosis was a shock. He described hoping each test would show nothing serious, but said the biopsy result was the moment he heard the words he had feared.
Cameron explained that his wife, Samantha, encouraged him to get tested. The couple had heard Soho House founder Nick Jones speak on the radio about his own prostate cancer diagnosis.
Cameron received focal therapy, a treatment that uses electrical pulses to destroy cancer cells. He is now calling for earlier detection through screening, saying treatment is more successful when the disease is found sooner.
He admitted he does not like discussing personal health issues but believes speaking out is necessary. “Men are not very good at talking about their health,” he said. “We often delay things.”
Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men in the UK. Around 55,000 men are diagnosed each year. There is currently no national screening programme because PSA testing is not always accurate.
Cameron’s announcement comes shortly after Olympic cycling champion Sir Chris Hoy revealed he has stage 4 prostate cancer that has spread to several parts of his body.
Cameron left parliament after the 2016 EU referendum and returned to government in 2023, when Rishi Sunak appointed him foreign secretary and made him a life peer.
His disclosure also follows the launch of a major UK trial designed to test the most effective screening options. The Transform project will compare new screening methods with current NHS procedures, such as blood tests and biopsies. The trial will be run with the NHS and funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research and Prostate Cancer UK.
The UK National Screening Committee is expected to decide soon whether the current evidence supports introducing a national screening programme.
Chiara De Biase of Prostate Cancer UK welcomed Cameron’s openness. She said finding the disease early can save lives and stressed that too many men still die from a cancer that is often curable. She added that outcomes remain worse for men at higher risk, including Black men and those from working-class backgrounds, and called again for urgent change.
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