Two of my friends are in remission for prostate cancer. Another has stage 4, I'm sorry to say.
Hearing their stories prompted me to get a PSA (prostate-specific antigen) blood test, which scans for a protein made by the prostate gland.
By a long way, this beats the indignity of the digital rectal exam (finger-up-bum test). Now that's not to say those tests are not relevant, but routine use is dropping in favour of better diagnostics like MRI scans.
The GP may still perform a DRE if your PSA results come back elevated - and in that scenario you pray your doctor has small hands.
Raised PSA levels can signal prostate cancer, though they can also rise from benign causes like an enlarged prostate or infection.
A PSA test takes less than five minutes - and next year finger-prick versions will be available to do at home.
My test cost £10 and I went through CHAPS, a charity that takes PSA testing to men. It couldn't have been easier.
Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men in the UK, with 68,218 cases diagnosed, making up more than 3 in 10 of all new cancers in men.
It causes around 12,300 deaths a year, with more than three-quarters in men aged 75 and over but 80% of men survive ten years or more. Risk is far from even, with 1 in 4 black men in the UK developing prostate cancer in their lifetime.
There is so much health screening available privately now. The market is shifting from something the NHS does for you occasionally to something you do for yourself, cheaply and often.
And it's going to be big business.
Neko Health, co-founded by Spotify's Daniel Ek, raised $260m to scale a fifteen-minute full-body scan and now has a waiting list north of 300,000 people.
Multi-cancer blood tests like Galleri are filing for approval. Home kits are arriving for tests that used to mean a clinic visit.
For women, cervical screening used to mean an appointment. Now you can do it yourself, with a simple swab at home, posted off to check for the HPV virus that causes nearly all cervical cancer. The UK started rolling this out earlier this year.
This technology is here and it is cheap. Please book your test today.
Have a great weekend.
Dan x
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