BBC: Is prostate cancer over-treated?-2

The next headline is about this. This headline's from the Sun, a newspaper in the UK. Harmful. Thousands of men given unnecessary prostate cancer treatment every year dut to 'wild west' guidelines. 

That headline again from the Sun, a newspaper in the UK. Harmful. Thousands of men given unnecessary prostate cancer treatment every year due to 'wild west' guidelines. 

This again is talking about the idea that more cases of prostate cancer are being treated than is needed. We're interested in the phrase Wild West here. 

Wild West is usually used to refer to a period of history where settlers spread across North America in the late 1800's. It's what you see in cowboy films. 

That's from history, but when Wild West is used metaphorically like this, it's talking about a situation where there is little regulation or control. 

Yes, so in this story, 'wild west' is referring to different hospitals creating their own rules, rather than following an organized national strategy. 

And we hear wild west in losts of stories, where there's a lack of regulation or order. For example, it's often used to talk about types of business are unregulated. 

We've had 'wild west', a situation with little control or regulation. 

For example, my friend invested in cryptocurrencies, but it turned out to be a scam, it's a wild west sector. 

That's it for this episode of Learning English from the News, we'll be back next week with another news story. 

So if you want to practice what you've learned, go to our website bbclearningenglish.com to see more example sentences and to try a free worksheet. 

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