The head of the prostate cancer screening programme which said that screening should not be made routinely available for the vast majority of men, has revealed for the first time that he has had the disease himself.
Professor Sir Mike Richards, chairman of the UK National Screening Committee (UKNSC), said his own prostate cancer had been picked by up a PSA (prostate specific antigen) test 'after he had symptoms' and he had had his prostate removed.
But after a review the UKNSC, which advises the government, said it would not recommend screening for all men as it might 'do more harm than good'.
Campaigners including Sir Chris Hoy, Sir Stephen Fry and former Prime Ministers Rishi Sunak and Lord David Cameron who all called for the test to be available as part of a national screening programme, have criticised the decision.
Professor Richards, a former national cancer director, had told a briefing that modelling on PSA shows that 'whole population screening may lead to a small reduction in prostate cancer deaths, but the very high levels of overdiagnosis' and means harms outweigh the benefits.
Many experts argue the PSA test is not very reliable because men with a high PSA level may not have cancer and some men with cancer have a normal PSA result.
Asked by the BBC today how difficult it was to face criticism from not one but two former Prime Ministers including one, Lord Cameron, who revealed last week that he had suffered from the cancer himself, he said:
'I may say and I haven't previously said this publicly, I have actually had prostate cancer myself so I do know what it is like from a personal angle as well as through looking at the evidence.'
Professor Sir Mike Richards (pictured), chairman of the UK National Screening Committee (UKNSC), said his own prostate cancer had been picked by up a PSA (prostate specific antigen) test
Campaigners such as former Prime Minister David Cameron, who revealed last week that he been diagnosed with protstate cancer
'I can join Lord Cameron in that group so it's not that I am against having a screening programme - of course I would like to have a screening programme for this condition - but I believe this is the right road for the time being.
'Of course, men can ask for a PSA test - that is available to them. I had symptoms and a PSA test and I was diagnosed and I have now had my prostate removed.'
He also told Radio 4's Today programme that he 'had met Rishi Sunak and had a long conversation with him. We differ on the interpretation of the data - that's fine - and that's why we are going out to consultation on this and I would welcome his comments back to that consultation'.
Professor Richards reiterated the review's findings that the more people could be harmed by any screening programme than helped if they were subject to unnecessary treatment.
He estimated that for 'every 700 people whose lives were saved, 7000 would be left with permanent issues'.
While he recognised that black men as group were more likely to get prostate cancer, he said that not enough research had been done because 'so few of them have been involved in trials up to now' and that is what 'we are trying to rectify and rectify rapidly'.
A new trial called 'the Transform Trial' which has just started was trying as recruit as many black men as possible to change that, he said, with answers to what we need then expected within two years.
'If we get the answers we need, I would certainly be in favour of changing the recommendation,'
he told the BBC.
The current committee recommendation will be for men with BRCA1 and BRCA2 genetic mutations - which puts them at far higher risk of prostate cancer - to be screened every two years, between the ages of 45 and 61.
Experts are also waiting to see data from a large trial launched by Prostate Cancer UK last week into whether combining PSA with other tests, such as rapid MRI scans, could lead to a recommendation for population-wide screening.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting said he would consider the findings, adding that he wanted to see earlier diagnosis and quicker treatment, but that needed to be balanced against 'the harms that wider screening could cause to men'.