Prostate cancer

Is there a recommended age for this type of check up then?
I'm in my early thirties and never really thought much about it, but I can slowly feel my youth disappearing so might need to start taking care!

If you had family history of prostate cancer I guess they might consider screening you, it would be worth asking your GP for advice. If you developed persistent pain in your pelvis, lower back or had to pee multiple times at night then you would be best to see the GP. If you were that worried I suspect the GP would check you there and then, it won't be something they are strangers to.

In one study I read the median age for presentation of prostate cancer was 68 years of age meaning you are highly unlikely to develop it at your age according to statistics alone.
 
As others have said, there are a number of ways of treating this, your urologist will be more than open to considering them, there is external beam radiotherapy, where they zap you externally from different angles so that the point they are trying to hit gets a hefty dose, there is brachytherapy which is the implantation of radioactive sources inside the target tissue and then there is surgery.

As you might tell I have had to write an extensive research presentation and prostate cancer and brachytherapy are talked about in it a lot. There are minimal side effects of brachy therapy and you will probably only need an outpatient appointment for it. It has a very high success rate so is worth talking to your urologist about.

Having an enlarged prostate is nothing to automatically be frightened of; it is very common in older men and would be considered normal, but it is something to be aware of and that is why men are screened.

There are very very high survival rates with prostate cancer.
 
85% of men have prostate cancer in one form or other when they die its maybe just not that killed them.
To quote from Groundswell 2017 Graham Sait . US examined prostate of every 50 year old killed in a car accident. 70% had traces of prostate cancer.
The 30% healthy ones had 7X the amount of Zinc in them than the unhealthy.
Careful on the Zinc pills boys. If you already have a diet with adequate Zinc then the effect of an overdose is to make you feel like your skin is covered in fleas or bed bugs. I take one a week.
Both in AG and Human research I think the Danes are streets ahead of us.
An article many years ago quoted that in batches of ten going into hospital with prostate cancer they gave different treatments.
One treatment was Tamoxifen (standard anti cancer drug approx 50p/day) plus Pomegranate juice.
Four of the men in that trial the tumour reduced where it was difficult to see it on the scan, four the tumour reduced and they went home.
Two died! Bear in mind those ten men went to hospital to die!
I drink a third of a pint of Pomegranate plus blueberry juice every morning straight from the fridge first thing. You feel it go all the way down to the seat of the action.
Graham S also drinks Pomegranate juice every day so he told me.
Just to cause some controversy if you are already diagnosed up the rate plus start eating lots of sprouts, cabbage etc but all Organic.
Friend of mine was given weeks to live but doing both those things gave him another three years. Has to be worth a try as its not expensive.
 

Michael S

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Matching Green
I started having PSA testing at 48 because I have blood relatives who had prostate cancer. At 51 I was diagnosed through a biopsy in July 2016. I went on to active surveillance where your PSA is tested every three months without any real drama. Following a more detailed, transperenial(sp), biopsy in February 2017 things had moved on from Gleason 6 to a small amount of Gleason 7 but in the summer I started suffering from urine retention. Although pills have allowed me to carry on as normal I now have two problems. After consulting with two urologists the decision has been made to remove my prostate as the best course of action, an operation that is less than two weeks away. Whilst I'm not looking forward to the operation at least the cancer has been caught in good time.

If you are over 50 and have blood relatives that have had prostate cancer I'd get your PSA checked, the test maybe imperfect but it could save you a lot of problems or extend your life.
 
A chap who works for me came in on Monday, got straight to the point and said I’ve got 6-18 months :(

I didn’t know what to say?
As per above post. Tell him to go to consultant and ask for tamoxifen, 40p per day approx. Drink minimum of half a litre of pomegranate juice every morning and also eat pomegranate as a fruit. It's used in some salads. Worked for 80 per cent of Danes in the trial. Good enough for me and gave a friend of mine a lot longer than forecast.
 

Michael S

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Matching Green
Had robotic surgery on Thursday , hopefully all the cancer is gone, at this stage 95% certain. Came home yesterday pm, most pain from the gas they inflate your abdomen with whilst doing the operation. The pain curiously appears in the shoulders despite the gas, CO2, being below your diaphragm; something to do with the way the nervous system is wired. Have to wear surgical stockings for 10 days and self inject a blood thinner for a month to help prevent deep vein thrombosis. Catheter in for a fortnight until I next see the consultant surgeon then the fun of relearning bladder control.

The wait for the next PSA test will be an anxious one.
 

Hazzard

Member
Location
Shropshire
Results came back ok but doc still wants me to see a urologist on Monday they don’t mess around it’s been less than a week and they all poked and prodded scanned and sampled
They must think there’s somthing early warning and there determined to find it [emoji106]
Good article in Tuesdays' daily mail about prostate cancer, worth a read for every male with or without the cancer. Advances in medical science are helping many more people with the big C.
 

DRC

Member
My reading came back at 3.7, which is slightly higher than the 3.5 the doctor wanted, so re test in three months.
Good news for my friend, whose PSA was 7.5, but a biopsy came back negative. No explanation why the reading was so high.
 

jorgenbg

Member
Location
Oslo, Norway
My dad went in todo a biopsy 11 months ago(68 years old). Three days later he had a wake up stroke. Called me 5 in the morning and told me he was dizzy and asked If I could take him to the ER. Called an ambulance and rushed to him(5 min drive). Last time I ever spoke to him.

Turns out he got blood infection from the biopsy that caused stroke after stroke. Nobody understood this until My sister had meetings with different doctors involved after his death.
 

Gone Shooting

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
hereford
Routine psa test with the doctor showed a slight rise to 3.8 ( still fine for a 61 yr old - lost father at 62 with it ! ) and referred me the hospital urologist . Went in today after a cancellation and had the greasy finger and all is well - makes you ponder a few things whilst waiting though ! Repeating an earlier post go and get checked - my dad didn't and I miss him to bits.
 

Michael S

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Matching Green
Just an update on my progress, perhaps for the benefit of anyone reading this who might be facing the prospect of a prostatectomy without necessarily chiming in.

On Thursday, two weeks post op, I went back to the hospital to have the staples removed, the catheter removed (lots of deep breaths!) and a another large injection of antibiotics in the backside that was the most painful part of the visit. I then was equipped with incontinence pads and sent to drink and then pee when ready into a bottle, presenting the pad and the bottle back to urological nurse who weighed them to establish how much I passed as well as using an ultrasound scan to determine any residue of urine left in my bladder. Having repeated the test and passed I was sent home with a handful of incontinence pads and advice to buy size 6 or 7 supermarket own brand nappies because they are much cheaper than male incontinence pads! So it is I can tell you that Tesco nappies are 10p each whereas male incontinence pads from Amazon work at 50p each.

I am quite lucky that my leakage is very low, probably due to doing some pelvic floor exercises from the time I knew I'd be having the operation. One useful thing I wish I had had pre-op is the NHS Squeezy app. The urological nurse advised me to download it at £2.99 and it just disciplines you to carry out the exercise regularly and fully as opposed to the more random way I dealt with the exercises before my operation.

I am now able to go out and walk, gradually further and further. Yesterday my daughter drove me round the farm and we stopped and walked out in some fields to get a fix of farming, certainly good for the soul as far as I am concerned.

Next step is to see the consultant surgeon tomorrow for a follow up report on the operation; I will post again some time after that.
 

jre

Member
Location
East Fife
Just an update on my progress, perhaps for the benefit of anyone reading this who might be facing the prospect of a prostatectomy without necessarily chiming in.

On Thursday, two weeks post op, I went back to the hospital to have the staples removed, the catheter removed (lots of deep breaths!) and a another large injection of antibiotics in the backside that was the most painful part of the visit. I then was equipped with incontinence pads and sent to drink and then pee when ready into a bottle, presenting the pad and the bottle back to urological nurse who weighed them to establish how much I passed as well as using an ultrasound scan to determine any residue of urine left in my bladder. Having repeated the test and passed I was sent home with a handful of incontinence pads and advice to buy size 6 or 7 supermarket own brand nappies because they are much cheaper than male incontinence pads! So it is I can tell you that Tesco nappies are 10p each whereas male incontinence pads from Amazon work at 50p each.

I am quite lucky that my leakage is very low, probably due to doing some pelvic floor exercises from the time I knew I'd be having the operation. One useful thing I wish I had had pre-op is the NHS Squeezy app. The urological nurse advised me to download it at £2.99 and it just disciplines you to carry out the exercise regularly and fully as opposed to the more random way I dealt with the exercises before my operation.

I am now able to go out and walk, gradually further and further. Yesterday my daughter drove me round the farm and we stopped and walked out in some fields to get a fix of farming, certainly good for the soul as far as I am concerned.

Next step is to see the consultant surgeon tomorrow for a follow up report on the operation; I will post again some time after that.
Good to hear its all going well for you. Thanks for posting that. I am facing the prospect of the same operation in the future. Got diagnosed last november with very early stage cancer. Saw the oncologist two week ago and he suggested doing active surveillance for now. he thought i might get a few year yet before i need to have my prostate removed.
 

Michael S

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Matching Green
Saw my surgeon last week and pleased to report that my PSA level is now less than 0.04, as low as is detectable, meaning the cancer is almost certainly gone so a big sigh of relief. I am due back for the next (high sensitivity) PSA test in three months as a check up.

I am lucky, in a large part due to the skills of the surgeon I'm under, that I have been continent virtually since the catheter was removed and only used the pads/nappies for 7 days after having the catheter removed for "security".

Only three weeks until I am allowed back on full farm duties, counting the days now! As a well planned operation everything has ticked along OK with a friend's son filling on the physical work side and my wife and I have kept the office as up to date as we ever have it.
 
Saw my surgeon last week and pleased to report that my PSA level is now less than 0.04, as low as is detectable, meaning the cancer is almost certainly gone so a big sigh of relief. I am due back for the next (high sensitivity) PSA test in three months as a check up.

I am lucky, in a large part due to the skills of the surgeon I'm under, that I have been continent virtually since the catheter was removed and only used the pads/nappies for 7 days after having the catheter removed for "security".

Only three weeks until I am allowed back on full farm duties, counting the days now! As a well planned operation everything has ticked along OK with a friend's son filling on the physical work side and my wife and I have kept the office as up to date as we ever have it.

Thank you for keeping us updated, I was wondering how you had fared and I am glad you have had the best possible outcome.
 

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