Silence Killing British Men - Prostate Cancer Awareness Week encouraging men to talk.
Prostate cancer is the most common cancer among men. Every three minutes a man is diagnosed with the disease and one million men are being treated for the condition worldwide.
But despite prostate cancer being the second leading cause of deaths among men, with a life lost to the disease every six minutes, it is a taboo subject for many victims, who feel too embarrassed to mention the condition.
To mark Prostate Cancer Awareness Week, (19 –25 March) Prostate Cancer Research wants more men to talk about the disease and is raising awareness of the risk factors and symptoms men should be looking out for.
If caught early there is a good chance treatment will be successful but worrying statistics show that while the number of cases of prostate cancer since 1998 have dropped there has been no fall in the number of deaths, unlike breast cancer which has seen a massive improvement in survival rates.
Often the indicators of prostate cancer only start to show once the disease is fairly advanced but men should be alert if they have difficulty in urinating. So if after a visit to the pub a man feels he needs to urinate but cannot he should maybe discuss the matter with friends, his GP or contact Prostate Cancer Research for advice.
Men of Afro-Caribbean descent are three times more likely to develop prostate cancer than the average male while those with a father or son who has had the disease is twice as likely to be diagnosed. Over 50s, those with an enlarged prostate are also at risk.
We talked to the Director of Prostate Cancer Research Prof John Masters and Matt Rannamets, who has suffered from it first hand, to find out what symptoms and risk factors wives and mums should really know about to save the men in their lives.
Why don’t men talk about prostate cancer?
John - Well unfortunately men are very embarrassed about going to the doctor and they tend to avoid going there if they possibly can.
It’s very important to catch the cancer early because if it is, it can be cured with either radical surgery or with radical radiotherapy – so that’s tremendous. But once it’s spread outside the prostrate it’s much, much more difficult to treat.
What can be done now to make people more open about the risk factors and symptoms of the disease?
John – Well as you know that’s what the Prostate Cancer Awareness Week is about. We at the Prostate Cancer Research Charity have a very particular useful little booklet called “Treating Prostate Cancer – Questions and Answers” and that’s free to anybody who wants it either by emailing the PCRC (at: [email protected]) or by telephoning us on 0207 679 9366.
What treatments are on the scene at the moment with regards to the condition - any new innovative ones?
There are lots of new exciting prospects on the horizon, for instance High Dose Rate Bracytherapy. (the treatment Matt received) Another is HIFU - High Intensity Focused Ultrasound, which is a bit like with breast cancer, instead of removing the whole breast like we used to do - treatment for breast cancer is much more refocused now. It’s a similar approach with prostate cancer. Instead of removing the whole prostate, the goal is just to focus on the cancer and kill the cancer rather than the whole prostate.
Matt, can you tell us what first made you personally suspect something was wrong?
Matt – I think it was something that crept onto me quite gradually. Looking back I’d noticed that I’d started to get up at night to go to the loo whereas previously I never did that sort of thing. I also noticed that my ejaculations began to dry up and eventually dried up all together. Now I noticed that but didn’t really do anything about it for about six months.
What was your reaction when you first discovered what the condition you were suffering from actually was?
Matt – I went to the GP and had a straightforward blood test that came up with a very high level of PSA, which was a good indicator that cancer was present in the prostate. But it wasn’t until I had a biopsy that it was confirmed that cancer was present and that also it was a particularly aggressive form of the condition which apparently left me with two or three years to live. That obviously was a bit of a shock.
It is especially important to stay positive throughout treatment though isn’t it?
Matt – Absolutely. I mean initially you go through a whole raft of emotions. You wonder why it’s you, you’re angry, but after a couple of weeks you just have to come to terms with the situation and I decided that I needed to do certain things for myself, because there was nothing much I could do medically at that time. So I did change my diet quite drastically – a very low fat diet. I stopped eating red meat, I stopped having sugar and I started a pretty intense fitness regime mainly because I think you need to get yourself a fit as you possibly can so that you can cope with the sort of treatments that you might expect to have a little bit further down the line.
You found a Lance Armstrong book “It’s not about the bike”, particularly motivating as well didn’t you?
Matt – Aaah yes that was an inspiration. At the time I had this terrific thirst to find out as much as I possibly could about prostate cancer. I mean its odd; initially I didn’t even want to think about it, but once the thing was confirmed I spent quite a lot of time researching about it. Some of the things were interesting, other things I just didn’t want to hear about. I found the Lance Armstrong book and that was a brilliant inspiration – I would recommend it.
What further advice would you give to a fellow sufferer right now?
Matt- Initially if anybody suspects things are not right – they many only just be small subtle changes like getting up at night at the odd time to go to the loo – just immediately go to your GP and ask for a simple blood test. Probably there will be nothing wrong, but do the blood test and if there is anything to worry about then you can catch this thing early. Then the other thing, I suppose from my own perspective is I would tell other people to try and do stuff for themselves because it does actually help.
Try and carry on a normal a life as possible then?
Matt – Absolutely. I mean I carried on working throughout that early period and I found that helpful - to carry on as much as I could in a normal way. I’m retired now but at the time I was working for the Inland Revenue. Shock horror!
Three years on from your diagnosis you’re still here to tell the tale and your PSA count appears to have stabilised at a very low 0.2 after successful treatment. What are your optimistic ambitions now you’ve got your life back.
Matt – It does change your perspective of things. You begin to appreciate life in a different way. I became very interested in supporting prostrate cancer charities and I try to help out as much as I can. I did a sponsored climb of Kilimanjaro a year ago to raise money for the Prostate Cancer Research Centre and we’ve got one or two other projects on the go, which hopefully will be useful and helpful.
John – We’re climbing up Snowdon if anybody would like to join. Matt- Yes – it’s getting five hundred people up and down Snowdon in one day, which could be an interesting exercise.
There appears to be a huge amount of information about what actually causes and how best to avert cancer. Have you any extra tips or guidelines to staying healthy and reducing your risk?
Matt- I’m not sure we really understand what causes it fully but I would certainly advocate a healthy lifestyle, which in itself will probably help you combat the onset of cancer. So not smoking, not drinking and a low saturated fat diet.
John – Well not too much drinking anyway.
Have you any advice for family members and friends on how to support somebody with prostate cancer. People are often unsure of how to act around sufferers aren’t they?
John – They just need to be there for the person. It’s as simple as that. The booklet I mentioned earlier – (“Treating Prostate Cancer – Questions and Answers”) is available to anyone. A lot of wives ring up for copies of it and other relatives – as well as the men who suspect they might have it. So that sort of thing is really useful and there are lots of resources on the World Wide Web.
For more information please visit www.prostate-cancer-research.org.uk