Restaurant critic Giles Coren reveals prostate cancer diagnosis and says he had to 'demand' test from NHS
31 January 2025, 21:53 | Updated: 31 January 2025, 23:06
Giles Coren has been diagnosed with prostate cancer.
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Coren, 55, said urology nurses had taken a biopsy before informing him they had found "some cancer" but that "no treatment would be necessary for the moment".
"In the very week that it was announced on the front page of The Times that prostate cancer is now the commonest cancer in England ... I have been diagnosed with it!" he wrote in his column for the paper.
Earlier in the week charity Prostate Cancer UK said diagnoses of the disease had overtaken breast cancer in 2022 and 2023, making it England's most common cancer.
TV star and writer Coren, who is the brother of Only Connect presenter Victoria Coren Mitchell, said his "delightful journey started a couple of years ago".
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"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," he claimed.
The NHS website says a PSA test checks the level of prostate specific antigen in your blood, with high levels indicating a potential prostate condition.
Coren said the test "came back a bit high" and revealed he had only asked for it because of the work done by celebrities including Stephen Fry, the late Bill Turnbull - and more recently Sir Chris Hoy, who revealed his prostate cancer was terminal in 2024.
Prostate Cancer UK says "normal" PSA levels are usually less than 3ng/ml but adds that this varies, with levels depending on factors such as age and medication use.
After his test presented a score of four Coren was sent for an MRI scan, which he said "came back 'meh', not definitely cancer but not definitely not cancer".
They then offered him a biopsy which he declined until his PSA level went up to seven.
After the procedure one of the urology nurses phoned him to present the results and said they had found cancer - "but less than a millimetre in just three of the 21 samples".
According to Coren they said "that no treatment would be necessary for the moment. Just monitoring".
Coren has presented on TV shows including Amazing Hotels: Life Beyond The Lobby.
His debut novel, Winkler, won the Bad Sex In Fiction Award in 2005.
