Prostate cancer
By RW Bro Neil Atkins
I have prostate cancer One man’s experience of dealing with the diagnosis of prostate cancer.
I
have prostate cancer. Just before I turned 80, I was diagnosed with the cancer. I was one of approximately 19,508 Australian males newly diagnosed with prostate cancer during 2019. I share my experience with others who may have the cancer so they know they are not alone in the challenges they face. It is estimated that in New South Wales one in five males will be diagnosed with prostate cancer by the age of 85. Frightening statistics. For a cancer that is second to skin cancer as most often diagnosed in men, prostate cancer has a low profile when compared to other cancers, even though in 2019 it was estimated to cause the death of 3,306 males. There is a great deal of publicity on how to avoid having a heart attack or stroke but probably because the causes of prostate cancer are not clear, very little seems to be in the public domain about how to avoid getting prostate cancer. What is known is that prostate cancer is more likely to occur in older
Speaking to them I did not feel alone. They were still alive and healthy. It gave me great encouragement.
rather than younger men probably as part of the aging process and there is little one can do to stop that. The approach then is for men as they near 50 to repeatedly test to detect the cancer. But even now there is a body of opinion which suggests that prostate cancer is over diagnosed, resulting in unnecessary treatment.
Jokes are made about rectal examinations to detect prostate cancer, but I found the easiest test was a Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) blood test followed up by a rectal examination if necessary. But any one test, I understand is not conclusive unless a biopsy of the prostate is undertaken. Prostate cancer can occur without any indications of its presence. I was a healthy active male and I had no symptoms of prostate cancer. On a visit to my GP in September 2019, he suggested I should have a PSA test. It indicated a PSA level significantly higher than normal which was confirmed by a second PSA test. He advised that I contact a urologist and after a frantic two-week period of tests including a biopsy, MRI and CT scans the urologist advised me that I had aggressive prostate cancer which had started to move into a nearby organ. The shock of the diagnosis was indescribable. The overwhelming concern was how long did I have to live and what
Courtesy of the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia
18
March 2021
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