BBC star shares shock cancer diagnosis after originally 'turning down biopsy'

Food critic and BBC presenter Giles Coren
-Credit:2021 David M. Benett


TV presenter and food critic Giles Coren has revealed he has been diagnosed with prostate cancer. The news was announced on Friday, with Giles sharing that he received the diagnosis at exactly 9.30am on Wednesday this week.

In his column for The Times, where he has been a food critic since 2002, he explained how he would be monitored by doctors. The Our Food and Amazing Hotels presenter explained that he first got tested a few years ago with a prostate-specific antigen test result coming back as four, which he said was considered 'abnormal and facing imminent death'.

Giles, whose sister is Only Connect host Victoria Coren Mitchell, said how his doctor described his prostate cancer as a 'slow cancer' that 'all men get' if they live long enough. He revealed that despite being sent for an MRI scan, he had declined a biopsy when the result was inconclusive.

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He later agreed to an examination at the Royal Free Hospital in North London after his score increased to six and then seven. Doctors discovered less than a millimetre of cancer in just three of the 21 samples he provided.

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The malignant tumour does not need treatment at present, but doctors are continuing to monitor it. Giles, the only son of journalist Alan Coren, is known for many TV roles. He was a regular correspondent on Gordon Ramsay's The F Word and co-presented the Channel 4 series Animal Farm with Dr Olivia Judson.

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He he appeared in a series of television commercials for Birds Eye frozen foods and co-starred in a series of documentaries known as The Supersizers with Sue Perkins. In 2012, Coren presented Our Food on the BBC, travelling the country talking about various local foods

In 2015, Coren began a new BBC series, co-presented with social historian Polly Russell. Back in Time for Dinner and in 2017 presented Amazing Hotels: Life Beyond the Lobby alongside Monica Galetti.

In 2016, he presented 500 Questions, a four-part primetime game show on ITV.