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Health Secretary Matt Hancock has been accused of “astonishing ignorance” after claiming he is at higher risk of prostate cancer.

The Secretary of State gave a speech on Wednesday calling for expansion of gene testing and revealing the results of his own DNA test.

He told a Royal Society meeting that he is at 15% risk of prostate cancer by the time he is aged 70 and encouraged other healthy people to get the test.

Prof David Curtis, of the University College London’s Genetics Institute, said: “His claim that this test may have saved his life is frankly ridiculous.

“The quotes from Matt Hancock provide a really striking illustration of some of the things that can go wrong with providing people with polygenic scores which are supposed to indicate risk.

(Image: Getty)

“It is obvious that he has massively misinterpreted the meaning of the score he has been given.”

Experts said his level of risk is on par with the general population in the UK.

Mr Hancock told the debate: “The good news is I’m pretty healthy, below average for most of the 16 diseases.

“I probably have my grandmother, who lived to a 103, to thank for that.

“But it wasn’t all good news. I’m at higher risk of prostate cancer. My risk of prostate cancer by age 75 is almost 15%.

“As a result, I’ve booked an appointment with my NHS GP to discuss the correct course of action.”

Private companies are offering genetic tests but are largely unregulated and the level of lifetime risk they indicate is hotly debated.

(Image: Jack Taylor)

Prof Anneke Lucassen, chair of the British Society for Genetic Medicine, said: “I think it is unfortunate that his polygenic risk score has been portrayed as a strongly predictive genetic test.

“The claim that his life has been saved by this test is somewhat over egging the pudding.

“The Department of Health and Social Care is polling whether he has a duty to disclose this result to his siblings which begs the question what is there to disclose?”

My Hancock is pushing for the NHS to charge health patients to be DNA tested so it can use the information to improvement treatments.

Prof Curtis added: “As a result of his misunderstanding, he first suffered unnecessary anxiety and then took up valuable medical time having to be counselled about the reality of the situation.

“Now he is going to waste even more of the NHS’s scarce resources by booking a completely unnecessary appointment with his GP to discuss a ‘course of action’ to address a problem which essentially does not exist.

“As a health secretary, he displays a quite astonishing level of ignorance about the NHS.”

Diana Eccles, Professor of Cancer Genetics at Southampton University, said: “A 15% risk of prostate cancer compared to a UK population lifetime risk of 18% sounds like a pretty modest risk.

“There are many additional risk factors for prostate cancer including obesity.”