'Cancer goes undetected because it's linked to going to the loo at night'

Early-stage prostate cancer continues to go undetected because national guidelines and media health campaigns focus on the wrong symptoms, claim experts at the University of Cambridge. National guidelines, health advice and public health campaigns continue to promote a link between urinary symptoms and prostate cancer – despite what the researchers claim is a lack of scientific evidence.

They say the connection could deter men from coming forward for early testing and detection of a potentially treatable cancer. If men do not experience urinary symptoms, they may be less likely to associate their other medical complaints with the possibility of a prostate cancer diagnosis, the researchers claim.

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Prostate cancer is the most common type of cancer in men and a major cause of mortality in the UK, according to Cancer Research UK. Over 52,000 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer each year and there are more than 12,000 deaths – which account for seven per cent of all cancer deaths in the country.

And while around 78 per cent of men with the disease survive for ten years after diagnosis in England, nearly half of all prostate cancers are only picked up at stage three our of four. Despite advances in medicine, the rate of survival has seen little improvement in the UK over the past decade.

In a new review in BMC Medicine , Cambridge researchers argue that the 'misperception' around the link between urinary symptoms and prostate cancer could be a factor getting in the way of early detection.

“When most people think of the symptoms of prostate cancer, they think of problems with