Will I need a biopsy?

What are the risks and side effects of having a biopsy?

How many biopsy samples will be taken?

What are my Gleason grades and Gleason score?

Will I need an MRI, CT or bone scan?

What is the stage of my cancer?

What do the stage mean?

What treatments are suitable for me.

What are the side effects of the treatment?

What are the chances of successfully controlling the cancer with this treatment?

What follow-up treatment will I need?

What is the risk of my prostate cancer coming back?

How will I know if my cancer returns?

Which second line treatments will be available to me?

Are there any clinical trials which I could take part in?

Who can I contact if I or my family have any further questions or concerns.

Isnt that exactly what we patients have been saying year after year after and continue to say.

SO why don’t we have a testing programme for those men at risk when even the medical profession agree we should  be testing these men.

The Royal Marsden Hospital have shown that when a man has BRCA mutations the PSA blood test was a good predictor of prostate cancer. It just so happens that the BRCA genes are those that are present in breast cancer and hence the link between prostate cancer and breast cancer SO maybe those men who have a family history of breast cancer could be in a higher risk group for prostate cancer.

The article goes on to say that men should be better informed about the uncertainties associated with screening.

Yep absolutely right only problem is that the people who should be informing our men are the people who say men should be better informed SO Why aren’t they informing ALL men????.

Once again the whole article identifies the problem and does nothing about it so it ends up being a talking point only SO it is going to be up to us MEN and our WOMEN to go out and get the information to our fellow-men otherwise another 10,000 men will die in the UK again this year and every year.

36,000 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer each year in the UK (average over the last 3 years)

258,000 men died from prostate cancer worldwide in 2008

10,150 men die from prostate cancer each year in the UK (average over tthe past 3 years)

Over the last 30 years prostate cancer rates in the UK have almost TRIPLED.

and still the healthcare professionals debate the need for a testing regime for those men at risk!

WHY?? Is it because they dont believe the statistics? Perhaps they should go to some of the prostate cancer support groups around the UK and hear what we men with prostate cancer have to say!!! OR are patients unimportant when it comes to making decisions about our health.

Just  a bit of a rant because I know that the consultants and nurses do a fantastic job and the GPs do the best they can with the guidelines they have to work to.

Question:- Where is the problem does anyone have any ideas? Answers please to this blog

Professor Roger Kirby made the point this morning about the uncertainty of how long a man with incurable prostate cancer will take to die.

A team of consultants were asked to report on the health of Megrahi!! before his release,  its worth reading their accounts and I say no more on that subject.

BUT it does raise another issue, its the one around “whats the difference between incurable and terminally ill?”

There is actually a definition which says  ” a terminally ill patient is one that their life expectancy is estimated to be six months or less” BUT a patient with a slowly progressing disease (and prostate cancer is considered to be one of those) would not necessasarily be descibed as terminally ill because best estimates would be over 6 months. Generally health care professionals would over estimate  terminally ill patients who they say estimate to live for 6 weeks but would likely die in four weeks.

A similar definition is also used by the benefits payments office  in assessing a person for the non means tested benefit called Disability Living Allowance (DLA) available to ALL terminally ill people who by their definition are “ a patient who is not reasonably expected to live for more than six months”

Which of course begs the question HOW to assess a patient, WHO assess a patient and WHEN is a patient assessed.

Keith

1/ Immigrants.

2/ Men on lower incomes

3/ Men who have had less education

4/ Men who have no medical insurance.

5/ Men who are not registered at a GPs practice.

These men are at risk because it is unlikely they will get the information about prostate cancer and even if they did they probably have what they consider to be more important issues, the  ”I will be OK!”  head in the sand approach.

The point is that 10,000+ men in the UK die every year because they didn’t know their PSA level when it was at a curable stage.

EVERY man that reaches that terminal stage wishes that he had been aware of his PSA level at an early stage.

The first list confirmed by the US National Library of Medicine.

1/ Men with a family history of  Prostate Cancer

2/ African-American men

3/ Men who are older than 50

4/ Farmers

5/ Tyre Plant workers

6/ Painters

7/ Men who have been exposed to cadmium.

The list is not exclusive and not intended to frighten anyone BUT to inspire ALL men to know their PSA score it could be the one thing that he does to allow him a long and healthier life.

Early detection! Early detection! Early detection!

Why?

Because we all know that early detection of cancer gives a better chance of a cure.

BUT apparently NOT the same standard for prostate cancer according to some health care professionals.

Why do they say that?

They believe that early detection of prostate cancer leads to over treatment.

BUT

Others say that overtreatment comes from over reaction to PSA levels in the so called ”grey area” and if patients were made more aware of the benefits of  ”watchful waiting” (WW) ”active surveillance” (AS) much of the overtreatment would be eliminated.

Of course WW and AS require careful monitoring but surely that is a small price to pay for drastically reducing treatments that are both psychologically disturbing for patients and expensive.

Richard Mitten of the Norwich Research Park UK has found that sulforaphane a chemical found in  Broccoli interacts with cells lacking a gene called  PTEN to reduce the chances of prostate cancer developing.

In his trials the men were eating 400g (thats 14 oz) of Broccoli per week!! Doesnt leave much room on the plate for those roasties and yorkshire spuds!!

BUT if your really looking to give yourself the best chance of avoiding PROSTATE CANCER then this does look as if it has distinct possibilities and incidentally it is claimed to work on helping the prevention of BREAST CANCER

The PSA test is still the best tool available today for indicating prostate cancer.

SO instead of pointing out its flaws, we should be working on ways to make it better.

Skip Lockwood – ZERO