Health Minister, Dr Frank Anthony, wants to see more men being screened for prostate cancer.

Speaking to reporters, Dr. Anthony said while the Government offers free prostate cancer screening, many men continue to seek medical attention only after symptoms become severe. This trend significantly limits treatment options, he said.

“A common thing that we see, for example, is in prostate cancer, which is the more prevalent cancer that affect men. And we see men coming in in the late stages, which means they would have been having lots of symptoms and so years before, but they don’t present themselves to the clinic, so at that late stage, it’s problematic to resolve some of the problems that they have,” said Minister Anthony.

Prostate Cancer has emerged as the most pressing cancer-related threat to men in Guyana. According to the Ministry of Health’s National Guidelines for the Management of Prostate Health, prostate cancer now accounts for 19% of all cancer-related deaths recorded nationwide within the last three years—making it not only the most common cancer among Guyanese men but also the deadliest.

Minister Anthony said that with the introduction of the health vouchers, some men have been taking up the opportunity to get their PSA tests done to screen for prostate cancer.

“We also have a voucher that we’ve been giving for labs. There are two types: one for adults and one for children. So that too, we’ve seen relatively good uptake. The adult one, men have been using that to get PSA’s done—that’s Protein-Specific Antigen—which, if it’s elevated, it might be an indication that they’re having some changes in their prostate and when they come in, then we’re able to do the biopsy and so forth,” the Health Minister said.

The Ministry of Health has identified several groups with significantly higher vulnerability. Men 45 years and older, particularly those of Afro-Guyanese descent and men with a family history of the disease, make up the majority of the cases detected in recent years.

Contributing factors include poor health-seeking behaviour, cultural myths about prostate examinations, and inadequate access to screening and treatment— issues that continue to delay early detection.

The Ministry has stated that prostate cancer is “likely curable” when detected early, noting that outcomes still depend on genetics, disease aggressiveness, and broader social determinants of health.

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