David Cameron reveals prostate cancer diagnosis

David Cameron has disclosed he was treated for prostate cancer and has called for a targeted screening programme.

The former prime minister said he had a prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test, which looks for proteins associated with the form of the disease. The result was high and he subsequently had a biopsy that revealed the cancer, the Guardian reported.

Lord Cameron, 59, told the Times: “You always hope for the best. You have a high PSA score – that’s probably nothing.

“You have an MRI scan with a few black marks on it. You think, ‘Ah, that’s probably OK.’ But when the biopsy comes back, and it says you have got prostate cancer.

“You always dread hearing those words. And then literally as they’re coming out of the doctor’s mouth you’re thinking, ‘Oh, no, he’s going to say it. He’s going to say it. Oh God, he said it.’”

The former Conservative party leader was urged to get tested by his wife, Samantha, after the couple heard the founder of Soho House, Nick Jones, speaking about his diagnosis on the radio, the Times reported.

Cameron received focal therapy for treatment, in which electrical pulses target and destroy cancer cells.

He has called on the government to introduce screening to detect cases earlier, when treatment is more likely to succeed.

The peer said: “I want to, as it were, come out. I want to add my name to the long list of people calling for a targeted screening programme.

“I don’t particularly like discussing my personal intimate health issues, but I feel I ought to. Let’s be honest. Men are not very good at talking about their health. We tend to put things off.”

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in males in the UK, with about 55,000 new cases every year.

There is no screening programme for the form of the disease in the UK because of concerns about the accuracy of PSA tests.

Cameron resigned as prime minister and as an MP in his Oxfordshire seat of Witney in 2016. He was made foreign secretary by then-prime minister Rishi Sunak in 2023 and was also made a life peer and a member of the House of Lords.