Giles Coren: Food critic and BBC star diagnosed with prostate cancer after GP test

The former Back in Time for Dinner presenter was first sent for a scan "a couple of years ago" after a prostate specific antigen (PSA) test came back "a bit high" but he only recently underwent a biopsy after his PSA score began getting higher.

In his column for The Times newspaper, he said: “This delightful journey started a couple of years ago when I had to demand, literally demand, a prostate specific antigen (PSA) test along with my annual cholesterol check, because not only is it not mandatory on the NHS but your GP is not even allowed to suggest it unless you have symptoms (which is an absolute scandal - and men are dying because of it). It came back a bit high.

“I had only asked for the test because such good work has been done lately to raise awareness, by people like Stephen Fry and Bill Turnbull (and latterly poor Chris Hoy), and now here I was with a score of four, where higher than 2.5 is considered abnormal and facing imminent death.

"'It’s not imminent death', said my GP. 'All men get it, if they live long enough. It’s a slow cancer. Most men die with it, not of it. And a raised PSA doesn’t necessarily mean cancer anyway. I’ll send you for an MRI scan.' ...

“Long story short: the scan came back 'meh', not definitely cancer but not definitely not cancer.”

The 55-year-old restaurant critic underwent the biopsy and was told he has cancer - but for the time being, he won't need to have treatment and the disease will just be monitored.

He wrote: “Ciara [the urology nurse] phoned up and said in her lovely voice, 'Now we did find some cancer', as if it were actually quite a nice thing that they’d happened upon. 'But less than a millimetre in just three of the 21 samples.'

“Ciara said that this gave me a 'Gleason score' of 3+3. Which is the lowest possible rating for a malign tumour and that no treatment would be necessary for the moment. Just monitoring.”