Male cancer: it's time to check

"If you don't want cancer, feel your balls," sings comedian Tom Green, testicular cancer survivor. Green, the Canadian boyfriend of Drew Barrymore, has made a short film for MTV about having cancer. His song sums up the aim of male cancer awareness month - to make men aware in the simplest terms that if they know how to check and recognise the symptoms of testicular and prostate cancer they may save their lives.

You may think you've heard this before, but it is a message that is not getting across. Testicular cancer is the most common form of cancer in young men between 15 and 35, and its incidence has risen by 70 per cent over the past 20 years. The causes of this rise are unknown and doctors admit they are baffled.

This form of cancer normally presents itself as a lump in the testicle and regular examination can, in most instances, detect it at an early stage. Current medical advice is that men should check themselves every month for pea-like swellings.

The good news is that, if detected early enough, testicular cancer has a 96 per cent cure rate. You would have thought that young men would be sprinting over to their doctors' surgeries at the first sign of something unusual.

Unfortunately, according to a new survey by Men's Health magazine, 31 per cent of men under 25 are too embarrassed to see their GPs with a problem of this sort.

Dr Peter Rigby, of the Institute of Cancer Research, said: "Early diagnosis is essential for effective treatment and men must go to their GPs immediately if they have concerns."

There is a chance that the Footballer's Association may get behind a campaign to raise awareness, after the high-profile case of Millwall striker Neil Harris, who was diagnosed with testicular cancer less than a fortnight ago, and underwent an operation the following day. "There is real concern," says Gordon Taylor, chief executive of the Professional Footballers' Association.

We have had two or three cases involving footballers and they are two or three too many. We've been in touch with the FA and cancer is something we have to address and make people aware of."

After lung cancer, prostate cancer kills more men than any other form of the disease - in this country, 10,000 men die each year. Most (82 per cent) don't even know where their prostate gland is (it lies just beneath the bladder), let alone what the symptoms of prostate cancer are (the gland becomes enlarged, and this leads to the other symptoms - frequent passing of urine, having to go immediately, passing a weaker stream of urine and dribbling at the end of having a pee. Articles which avoid this sort of detail, because it is unpleasant, are among the reasons why this is another cancer which is on the increase. Experts predict that over the next decade it will overtake lung and breast cancer, with one in 13 men developing the disease. The prostate gland often enlarges with age but, because this could be due to cancer, it is vital that men consult their GP if any of the symptoms occur.

A Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) test can be used, in conjunction with other tests, to screen for early prostate cancer. A positive result is not necessarily an indicator of life-threatening cancer - only one in five men diagnosed with early prostate cancer following a positive PSA test will be expected to die from this disease.

For information and a leaflet, call the Everyman campaign: 0800 731 9468. The Prostate Cancer Charity helpline: 0845 300 8383.