Prostate cancer diagnosis has reached a crisis point. It is now the most common cancer diagnosed in Australia, overtaking breast cancer as the country’s leading cause of cancer.
To make matters worse, testing guidelines are based on outdated data and are likely contributing to the deaths of an increasing number of men. New data by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare estimates 24,217 Australian men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer this year, compared to 20,640 women diagnosed with breast cancer. That’s a 34% increase on the previous year.
This news confirms that prostate cancer is among the most significant challenges facing men’s health in Australia, and simply cannot be ignored any longer by policy makers and practitioners who do not realise the significant toll the disease takes on our lives.
Prostate cancer accounts for more hospitalisations than any other type of cancer in the country. This data provides further justification for an urgent review of the nation’s Clinical Guidelines for PSA testing, which measures prostate-specific antigen levels in the bloodstream. Existing guidelines are now six years old and based on outdated data. We hold grave fears they are putting men’s lives at risk, with 66 men diagnosed every day and more than 3,500 men expected to die from prostate cancer this year – a toll we can avoid if the disease is diagnosed early.
Nationally, we have seen a fourfold increase in the proportion of men waiting for more than a year for a prostatectomy, with nearly 1 in 10 patients waiting 12 months or longer in areas where incidence and referrals are higher, as in NSW.
Investing now in the restoration of services and staff is urgently needed to ensure safe, timely, and effective care. Without immediate action Australia will be confronted by an increase in excess avoidable deaths from prostate cancer.
A review of the Clinical Guidelines for PSA testing is urgently needed to ensure we triage patients appropriately and diagnose prostate cancers before they spread outside the prostate. The consequences if we don’t could be catastrophic for thousands of men at risk of being bottlenecked in a health system that is not coping with the service pressures of the post-COVID period.
More broadly, this is a call to action for all Australians. Over the past 26 years the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia (PCFA) has played an important role in vastly expanding our efforts on all fronts of research, awareness, and support. You can expect us to act on this news with great resolve, in concert with Prostate Cancer Support Groups Australia wide.
By Professor Jeff Dunn AO
(chief of mission and head of research at the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia)
The Parkes Prostate Cancer Awareness and Support Group meets every fourth Tuesday of the month at Parkes Neighbourhood Central at 7pm. Contact Michael on 0408 975 643.