Black men in England more likely to be diagnosed with late-stage prostate cancer, analysis shows
Black men in England are more likely to be diagnosed with late-stage prostate cancer than their white counterparts, while being less likely to receive life-saving treatment, analysis by the National Prostate Cancer Audit has found,The analysis found that black men were diagnosed with stage three or four prostate cancer at a rate of 440 per 100,000 black men in England, which is 1,5 times higher compared with their white counterparts, who had a diagnosis rate of 295 per 100,000,Furthermore, the research also found that black men in their 60s who had a later diagnosis were 14% less likely to receive life-saving treatments that have been approved by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence for use on the NHS,The research was conducted by analysing new prostate cancer diagnoses by ethnicity in England from January 2021 to December 2023, using data from the Rapid Cancer Registration dataset and the National Cancer Registration dataset.
Prostate cancer is the most common cancer among British men, with about 52,300 new cases and 12,000 deaths recorded in the UK each year.Black men are twice as likely to be diagnosed and 2.5 times more likely to die from the disease compared with white men.Prostate Cancer UK is calling for the government’s guidelines to be updated as, under current guidance, it is an individual’s responsibility to find out his risk and decide if he would like to request a blood test.The charity says that, although black men have double the risk of getting prostate cancer, current government guidelines treat them the same as other men with a lower risk.
Keith Morgan, the associate director of Black Health Equity at Prostate Cancer UK, said that one of the big issues with the NHS is that its current prostate cancer guidelines for GPs are “hugely outdated”.Morgan said: “Every man has the right to the best care and treatment for prostate cancer.We know that black men are at a higher risk of getting prostate cancer, but this new data from the National Prostate Cancer Audit shows that if you’re black, the odds are currently stacked even higher against you.”He added: “One big issue is that prostate cancer guidelines for GPs are hugely outdated.In the current guidelines, GPs are told not to start conversations about the pros and cons of PSA testing with men at risk.
Instead, it’s up to men to know their risk and start a conversation themselves.Prof Frank Chinegwundoh, a consultant urologist at Barts Health NHS Trust, said: “It’s about time that we had this data from the NPCA – there’s a desperate need to better understand why black men are twice as likely to die from prostate cancer in the UK and take actions to save lives.“The disparity that we can see from this data is shocking, and deeply disappointing.This is a consequence of current guidelines; these guidelines treat all men the same, regardless of the fact that some individuals – black men in this instance – have higher-than-average risk of prostate cancer.”He added: “Some men don’t come forward to their GPs because they think they’ll be invited as part of routine tests – when this simply isn’t true.
The sooner the guidelines change, the sooner we can start saving more lives.”An NHS spokesperson said: “More black men than ever before are having prostate cancer diagnosed at an early stage thanks to awareness campaigns and the work NHS England has been doing in collaboration with Prostate Cancer UK, and we are working with Cancer Alliances to ensure that everyone has equal access to treatment at whatever stage their cancer is diagnosed.“The UK National Screening Committee makes recommendations on screening and currently does not recommend inviting people without symptoms to have a PSA test because current evidence does not show that the benefits outweigh the harms.But if you have a family history of prostate cancer or have any symptoms you’re worried about, please contact your GP.”A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “Prostate cancer patients are waiting too long for diagnosis and treatment, and we are determined to change that.
“The UK national screening committee is reviewing the evidence for prostate cancer screening programmes, including targeted approaches for men at higher risk.Given Black men are twice as likely to get prostate cancer, much more needs to be done to speed up diagnosis and treatment.”
Ticket resale prices for live UK events to be capped in crackdown on touts
The price at which tickets for live events can be resold is to be capped under “gamechanging” proposals put forward by the government to crack down on touting in the sector.In a move hailed by music industry figures, the culture minister, Lisa Nandy, has launched a consultation that she said would end the “misery” of fans being exploited by touts, some of whom have made huge profits by selling hundreds of tickets a year.Ministers will also look at dynamic pricing, the controversial model used by Oasis last year for their reunion tour, which meant fans who queued online for tickets were shown a much greater price than advertised at checkout, with limited time to decide on the purchase.It follows years of campaigning by politicians, musicians and the theatre industry to stop professional “resellers” hoovering up tickets at the expense of fans and selling them on for huge mark-ups in alliance with platforms such as Viagogo and StubHub, which take a cut of the profits.This “secondary” ticketing market has provoked outrage among music fans and those purchasing tickets for West End shows including Hamilton and Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
Reeves mulls deeper cuts to public services as borrowing costs soar
Rachel Reeves is considering imposing steeper cuts to public services to repair the government’s finances after a bruising week in which investors drove up the cost of UK borrowing and pushed the pound to a 14-month low.Government officials have told the Guardian the chancellor is prepared to reduce departmental spending even more than planned, having ruled out increases to either borrowing or taxes. Any measures to avoid breaking her fiscal rules could be announced at an emergency statement in the spring.The prospect of a fresh spending squeeze comes as Britain’s financial position is being rattled by a dramatic sell-off in the global market for government debt, fuelling a rise in the UK’s long-term borrowing costs to the highest level since 1998.On another day of drama in the markets after a challenging start to the year for Labour, Darren Jones, the chief secretary to the Treasury, sought to soothe investor jitters by insisting the markets for UK government bonds, known as gilts, remained “orderly”, while confirming that the government would stick to its fiscal commitments
British politics are not Elon Musk’s to toy with | Letters
Your article (Elon Musk turns on Nigel Farage and calls for new leader of Reform, 5 January) raises fascinating insights as to how international interests play an ever more direct role in the British political system. Discretion is not assured. What is becoming clear is that the likes of Nigel Farage seem to have dispensed with the illusion that Brexit was about political independence. Instead, the need to comply with far-right US agendas, the infantile inconsistencies of rogue James-Bond-type billionaires, and to accept millions of pounds in overseas income are openly accepted.The positioning of Reform UK’s development in relation to overseas interests is at odds with the earlier rhetoric of national sovereignty
Collaborative research on AI safety is vital | Letters
Re Geoffrey Hinton’s concerns about the perils of artificial intelligence (‘Godfather of AI’ shortens odds of the technology wiping out humanity over next 30 years, 27 December), I believe these concerns can best be mitigated through collaborative research on AI safety, with a role for regulators at the table.Currently, frontier AI is tested post-development using “red teams” who try their best to elicit a negative outcome. This approach will never be enough; AI needs to be designed for safety and evaluation – something that can be done by drawing on expertise and experience in well-established safety-related industries.Hinton does not seem to think that the existential threat from AI is one which is deliberately being encoded – so why not enforce the deliberate avoidance of this scenario? While I don’t subscribe to his perspective about the level of risk facing humanity, the precautionary principle suggests that we must act now.In traditional safety-critical domains, the need to build physical systems, eg aircraft, limits the rate at which safety can be impacted
Chess: newly-married Carlsen signs up with Bundesliga, Freestyle and Saudis
Magnus Carlsen, the 34-year-old world No 1 and candidate for the greatest of all time, married Ella Victoria Mallone last Saturday in Oslo, where the congregation included a film crew from Netflix. The new Mrs Carlsen, 26, was born in Hong Kong to a Norwegian mother and an American father, was educated in the US, the UK and Canada, and has spent several years in Singapore.Carlsen’s stellar chess career, boosted by his controversial shared World Blitz title, is set to resume as early as this weekend, when the Norwegian will lead the newly promoted St Pauli team in the German Bundesliga, the strongest chess league in Europe.St Pauli’s team, which has scored only a single point out of eight from its four matches so far, is preparing a welcome for the No 1, who is scheduled to compete against Düsseldorf and Solingen in matches to be played in Hamburg on Saturday and Sunday. Carlsen’s games will be live streamed, with play due to start at 5
Novak Djokovic’s claim he ate ‘poisoned’ food in 2022 Melbourne hotel detention ‘possible but very unlikely’, experts say
Experts have cast doubt on Novak Djokovic’s claim that he was “poisoned” by the food he ate in hotel immigration detention during his Australian Open visa saga, suggesting it is possible but unlikely.Interviews with the former world number one ahead of the 2025 Australian Open have reopened public debate about the chain of events in 2022, with Australian tennis star Nick Kyrgios saying his home country had “treated [Djokovic] like shit” by cancelling his visa in 2022.The Serbian 24-time grand slam winner had his visa cancelled at first on the basis that he did not have a valid exemption to enter Australia while unvaccinated, and then personally cancelled by the then immigration minister, Alex Hawke, because his unvaccinated status could undermine social cohesion.Djokovic was detained in the Park hotel in Melbourne for five days before he left Australia after an unsuccessful appeal to the full federal court.Djokovic told Melbourne’s Herald Sun newspaper this week that he still had trauma from his experiences three years ago and felt stress arriving at the city’s airport
Elon Musk says all human data for AI training ‘exhausted’
Judge halts attempt to retrieve £600m bitcoin wallet from Welsh dump
Musk ‘lying like hell’ over AfD interview, says ex-EU tech leader
Meta has ‘heard the message’ from Trump, says whistleblower Frances Haugen
Meta’s factchecking partners brace for layoffs
AI-generated ‘slop’ is slowly killing the internet, so why is nobody trying to stop it? | Arwa Mahdawi