Doctors are warning of a looming treatment crisis with annual prostate cancer diagnoses projected to double to 8000 by 2045.

The cancer is the most commonly diagnosed in New Zealand, with more than 700 men dying every year.

Of those who survive, just over 60% said they had no symptoms when diagnosed.

Urologist Jim Duthie said men needed to change their attitudes to health and push their GPs for regular prostate cancer blood tests, once they hit 50.

“Not having visited a GP in 20 years is not a badge of honour,” he said.

“A yearly health check should be as routine as getting your car’s WOF – as much for your own sake as for those who love you.”

With the expected surge in cases, Duthie said it was time the Government stepped in with a nationwide screening programme.

New Zealand First recently introduced a Member’s Bill to set up a four-year pilot programme – with one location in each of the North and South islands.

The Prostate Cancer Foundation said such a programme would cost about $6.5 million but could potentially return over $100m “to the health system in cost savings, generate over half a billion in health gains, and avoid nearly $1m in personal income loss for working-age men”.

Prostate Cancer Foundation New Zealand CEO Peter Dickens. Photo / Supplied

Foundation chief executive Peter Dickens called for all parties to support the bill, and said it would allow New Zealand to learn from, and contribute to, an international database by joining a European Union screening pilot involving 12 other countries.

“We owe it to every man in New Zealand to take this issue seriously. If we can demonstrate this is truly an issue of national importance, then we can start having more open conversations about this devastating disease and the steps needed to address it.”

Beyond early detection and surveillance programmes, Duthie said New Zealand needed to modernise its treatment options, saying the nation was falling behind comparable countries in robotic surgery, radiotherapy and the latest medicines.

- RNZ