We can’t afford to mess about with the prostate

This time five years ago I was in the Mater Hospital in Dublin parting company with a dodgy prostate. It doesn’t seem that long ago, but I’m a lot wiser since. I was surprised back then how slowly the health care system moved after my initial diagnosis. So slowly in fact that it forced me to take control of the situation and make my own arrangements.

After the surgery, the consultant told me we were lucky to move when we did because the cancer was beginning to migrate beyond the prostate. It was a close call. If I had sat back and waited for the system to deal with me, I may not be here today to talk about it.

We can’t fool around with prostate cancer. The ostrich scenario doesn’t work. You must be pro-active and fight your corner – nobody else will do it for you. As men, we are reluctant to go looking for trouble where our health is concerned. We prefer instead to sit back and ignore anything that might interfere with our normal routine.

We see a visit to the doctor as an inconvenience. Completely unnecessary until we are at death’s door, or a limb is about to fall off. That of course can be a costly attitude. Much of what ails us these days can be dealt with satisfactorily if caught in time so burying our heads in the sand makes no sense.

I have been banging this drum for some time and I regularly ask my male friends if they’ve had a check-up and a blood test, and I make no apologies for being a pest. I was nagging a buddy recently and he eventually relented and went to the doctor. When he told the nurse he had been pestered into the visit, she told him he should be grateful. The world needed more naggers she said.

There are those who are critical of the PSA Test and argue that it’s not an accurate indicator of prostate cancer but that’s just what it is, an indicator. I often see comments dismissing the test as being unreliable and some suggest that it can lead to the removal of a healthy prostate but when it comes to advice, I prefer to take notice of the experts like the Irish Cancer Society.

When my GP spotted a rise in my PSA level, it sent up a red flag and he acted on it. It wasn’t a case of calling a surgeon to make an appointment to have this thing removed immediately. There was a process. He sent me to a consultant for a digital examination, then an MRI to have a better look, then a biopsy to see how bad it was and then a further test to see if the cancer had travelled beyond the prostate.

It was only then, after all those steps had been taken, that the decision was taken to have it removed surgically. So, my advice to all men of a certain age is not to listen to amateur physicians on the high stool in the local pub but go and have a regular blood test so any change in your PSA can be identified as soon as possible.

The other piece of advice I would offer is not to wait for symptoms to show up because they might never present themselves. I had none and most of the guys I have come in contact with over the last few years who have had prostate cancer had no symptoms either. So don’t wait, make an appointment with your GP today, it could save your life.

The Irish Cancer Society tell us that prostate cancer is a common cancer in Ireland. Around 3,940 men are diagnosed with it each year. It’s found within the prostate gland and there may be no symptoms but if it’s caught in time, it is very treatable.

The assistant director of research at Prostate Cancer UK agrees and he told the Sunday Times that when a man’s prostate cancer is caught early, it’s very treatable but sadly, more than 10,000 men each year are diagnosed too late, when their cancer has already spread.

One in eight men will develop prostate cancer at some point in their lives and the disease accounts for 14 per cent of all cancer deaths in males according to Cancer Research UK. Early diagnosis is crucial to reducing the UK’s mortality rates.

Survival rates are close to 100 per cent if it is caught early, falling to just 50 per cent if it is caught at stage 4, when it has spread to other parts of the body.

There is some good news on the horizon too. Testing for cancer when you have no symptoms is called screening and while there is no national screening programme for prostate cancer in Ireland that could be about to change.

Up to now, there was little evidence that screening would reduce deaths, however a new study by University College London has found that MRI scans are effective at spotting tumours and could form the basis of a “desperately needed” first NHS strategy for routine prostate screening in the UK.

According to the Sunday Times, all middle-aged men there could one day be offered MRI scans as part of a national screening programme that could save thousands of lives each year. Experts hope that within five to ten years all men over 50 will be invited for the scans, in the same way women are offered mammograms for breast cancer.

That sounds promising and screening for men in Ireland will surely follow from the UK. Until then though, we must continue with what we have, the humble blood test. It won’t kill you to get one, but it might kill you not to.