Former prime minister Rishi Sunak has stated he’s “honoured” to develop into a prostate most cancers charity ambassador.
He’ll assist Prostate Most cancers Analysis’s marketing campaign to introduce a nationwide screening programme for males at excessive threat of the illness.
He met employees creating a brand new blood take a look at on the laboratories of British most cancers diagnostics firm Oxford BioDynamics final week.
The EpiSwitch PSE take a look at is claimed to have the ability to detect prostate most cancers with 94% accuracy, which the charity referred to as a “vital enchancment” on essentially the most generally used prostate-specific antigen take a look at.
Former Conservative chief Sunak, who’s the MP for Richmond and Northallerton, stated he wished to “assist the charity’s mission to revolutionise prognosis and remedy”.
“Males are inclined to ignore ache hoping it will go away fairly than going to see the GP, and that is part of the rationale why prostate most cancers is now essentially the most generally recognized most cancers in males within the UK,” he stated.
“We will do one thing about that. It’s clear from a trial that I funded once I was in workplace, that early detection saves lives.”
He added he hoped his work for the charity would encourage extra males to get a screening take a look at “which is able to hopefully forestall additional useless deaths”.
Final month within the Home of Commons, he pressed the federal government to contemplate growing screenings for high-risk teams.
Iain Ross, government chairman of Oxford BioDynamics, stated greater than 9 out of 10 males who obtained a constructive EpiSwitch PSE outcome would have prostate most cancers confirmed.
This may “considerably minimize” the variety of “costly and pointless MRI scans” and invasive prostate biopsies, he added.
Oliver Kemp, chief government of Prostate Most cancers Analysis, referred to as Sunak’s assist “invaluable”.
“Rishi’s advocacy will assist us drive ahead modern analysis, problem well being inequalities, and make sure that extra lives are saved,” he added.
