Prostate Cancer Foundation warns against at-home test

The Prostate Cancer Foundation is warning men to avoid an at-home Prostate-Specific Antigen (PSA) test.

It has seen an increase in marketing for the self-test kit, which can cost between $20 and $50, alongside the "Clarkson effect" - a surge in men getting checked for prostate cancer after former Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson shared that he had been diagnosed with an "aggressive" form of the disease.

However, chief executive Peter Dickens told Morning Report that he did not believe they were reliable.

He said it was more complex than the result of a single test, which had a risk of causing unnecessary anxiety or false reassurance.

"And, ultimately, people will miss the opportunity for an early diagnosis."

Dickens said that men should not consider the result of a self-test "in isolation". He said it had to be interpreted by a clinician alongside other factors such as age, family history, ethnicity, and pre-existing health conditions.

"You may well look at the result that you get from a home test and come to completely the wrong conclusion."

However, Dickens said the foundation had not come to a view on whether the at-home test should come with a warning or not be sold.

"Around 350,000 PSA tests are ordered by health professionals and we estimate the number of home tests purchased to be in the low thousands," he said.

He was concerned in the increase in marketing, "manufacturers are possibly taking advantage of the difficulties, and the costs, that people are facing in getting into their GP, for example."

"We just want to make sure that no one's negatively impacted by a home test, as, really, even one person would be too many."

Dickens urged more men to be proactive in getting checked.

"The amount of people that will be diagnosed with prostate cancer is likely to double in the next 15 years," he said.

"Early detection is really important, and we do feel that the government's decision not to invest in a prostate cancer screening pilot, for instance, that's really disappointing, because around 740 men die each year from prostate cancer."