Some information about Prostate Cancer

This info was provided by The Prostate Cancer Charity - one of Robert's sponsored charities.

The Prostate Gland

The prostate is a walnut-sized gland found in men. It lies just beneath the bladder, surrounding the urethra tube through which urine and semen pass. The prostate's main jobs are to support the neck of the bladder and to make some of the fluid of semen.

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Prostate Cancer

When the cells that form the prostate begin to grow and multiply in an uncontrolled way, this is cancer. Prostate cancer is a slow growing cancer that can remain undiagnosed for a long time, but it is the most common cancer in men and can travel outside the gland, most commonly into the bones.

Nearly 32,000 men in the UK are diagnosed with prostate cancer each year. 10,000 men in the UK die of prostate cancer each year. That's more than 1 an hour.

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Factors

The risk of developing prostate cancer gets higher as men get older. Most men diagnosed with prostate cancer are over 50, but it does exist in younger men.

If your father, brother or son has been diagnosed with prostate cancer, you are two and a half tmes more likely to get prostate cancer. If your relative was under 60 when he was diagnosed, your chances are even higher.

African Caribean men are three times more likely to be diagnosed with prostate cancer than white men, though researchers have not yet discovered exactly why.

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Signs and Symptoms

Some of the symtoms are:

Difficulty or pain when passing urine.
The need to pass urine more often.
Broken sleep due to increased visits to pass urine.
Waiting for long periods before the urine flows.
The feeling that the bladder has not emptied fully.
Lower back pain.
Problems getting or keeping an erection.

These symptoms are shared with a non-cancer prostate condition, so these symptoms do not necessarily mean you have prostate cancer.

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Diagnosis

If your doctor thinks you may have prostate cancer, he or she may do a couple of tests called a PSA Level and a DRE.

PSA stands for Prostate Specific Antigen and is a protein found in the blood. A very elevated result may indicate prostate cancer. The PSA Level is a very simple blood test and should be carried out as part of a Well Man clinic over the age of 40 but it is not widely offered throughout the UK. Men, if you are over 40, go and insist!

DRE stands for Digital Rectal Examination and means the doctor will use a gloved hand to feel the prostate gland through the rectum. The doctor will be feeling for hard areas, enlargement, or unevenness.

If you are diagnosed with prostate cancer, more tests will be conducted, including a biopsy, probably a CT scan or MRI and possibly a bone scan.

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Treatment

Depending on how advanced your prostate cancer is, your age,and overall health, there are several treatment methods available, including Active Surveillance - which means watching you carefully and monitoring your condition, but otherwise not taking further action.

Other treatment methods include:

Surgery to remove the prostate gland.
Hormone Therapy
Radiotherapy - Known as External Beam Radiotherapy. A friend of ours took this option when he was diagnosed. He was lucky enough to have an hour's lift to The Edinburgh Male Cancer Centre at the Western General Hospital every day for 4 weeks to have this carried out.
Brachytherapy - This involves implantation of tiny radioactive seeds directly into the prostate which is the least invasive form of therapy available to some men. This therapy, however, is not widely available throughout the UK. Robert was lucky to have this option available to him at The Edinburgh Male Cancer Centre at the Western General Hospital. It is, regretably, not available through the NHS is parts of England and not at all in Wales. It's a real postcode lottery.

Brachytherapy costs the NHS about £15,000 per man which is one of the main reasons Robert is raising money by participating in The Great Edinburgh Run - he wants to go at least part of the way towards paying back that money so that other men in the Scottish Borders can get treatment at The Edinburgh Male Cancer Centre.

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The Prostate Cancer Charity

The Prostate Cancer Charity funds vital medical research to find the causes and best treatments for prostate cancer. They also run a free, confidential Helpline (0800 074 8383) which is the UK's only nurse-led dedicated prostate cancer phone line. The Helpline can help you with information, but they are also great at listening to your feelings, worries, anger, doubts. They receive an average of 14,000 calls a year and are waiting to help.

The Prostate Cancer Charity also prints and distributes loads of helpful publications and their wonderful Tool Kit which is the only prostate cancer information pack to be accredited with a British Medical Association Award in the Patient Information Category.

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