Prostate cancer has overtaken breast cancer as the most common form of cancer in the UK, according to a new report.
Figures published by the charity Prostate Cancer UK found 64,425 men were diagnosed with the disease in 2022, compared with 61,640 people who were found to have breast cancer in the same period.
Breast cancer had previously been the most prevalent form of the disease in Britain.
The figures are a 24 per cent rise on the previous year (2021) when 51,823 men were diagnosed with prostate cancer, the charity said.
Prostate Cancer UK said a 42 per cent rise in diagnoses in the past decade is due to increased awareness of the disease and its symptoms, led by charities, the NHS and high-profile figures.
Prostate cancer officially became the most common cancer in England in 2020, and new data from Scotland, with data from Wales and Northern Ireland, has enabled a UK-wide figure to be established.
The charity is calling on the NHS to adopt wider screening using the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test.
It is also running a major clinical trial, expected to report within two years, into whether combining PSA with other tests, such as rapid MRI scans, could lead to a recommendation for population-wide screening for all men.
In December, a draft recommendation from the UK National Screening Committee (UKNSC), which advises the Government, said prostate cancer screening should not be made routinely available for the vast majority of men in the UK.
It did not recommend population screening using the PSA test, saying this was because it “is likely to cause more harm than good”.
