Prostate Cancer: get clued up

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men. In the UK, 37,000 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer every year and there are over 250,000 men living with the disease today. But how much do you know about the disease, the impact it can have on your life, and are you or the men in your life at risk by not knowing the possible signs and symptoms of this increasingly common disease?

Although prostate cancer mainly affects men over 50, it is important that everyone is aware of the possible signs and symptoms of the disease – particularly if you are at a greater risk.

In 2005 Maxton Beesley, father of British actor Max Beesley was diagnosed with prostate cancer. Having experienced no symptoms of the disease, his diagnosis came as huge shock. Six years later, through their battle with prostate cancer, father and son have become staunch advocates for The Prostate Cancer charity and have campaigned tirelessly for British men and their families to arm themselves with all the information they need to help fight the disease.

March is Prostate Cancer Awareness Month and the Charity is urging men and their families to be aware of the disease and on the lookout for some of the possible warning signs.

Log onto our live web TV show to find out some of the main symptoms of the disease and what you need to do if you spot them. Maxton will also share the story of his successful fight against Prostate Cancer and tell you why his family were so important during his battle. Prostate Cancer nurse Meg Burgess will also tell you what you should do if you suspect you or a family member or friend may have some of the symptoms.

Maxton Beesley and Meg Burgess from The Prostate Cancer Charity joins us live online to discuss Prostate Cancer Awareness Month, what you can do, and what you should be aware of.

H: Glen Thompsett

A: Meg Burgess – The Prostate Cancer Charity

B: Maxton Beesley – Cancer patient

C: Max Beesley – actor

D: Richard Price – Menswear Director, M&S

E: Jason Leonard OBE

F: John Neate – The Prostate Cancer Charity

G: Ben Shephard

I: Jamie Redknapp

J: Adrian Chiles

K: Les Ferdinand, MBE

H: March is Prostate Cancer Awareness Month, and coming up later in the show, we’ll be discussing the disease. It is the most common form of cancer in men in the UK, and if treated early enough, chances of recovery will be very high. We’ll be tackling the issues, coming up next.

Credits

H: Hello and welcome to Health and Wellbeing. I’m Glen Thomsett. In the UK alone, 37,000 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer every year and there are over 250,000 men living with the disease today, but how much do you know about it and the impact it can have on your life, and are you and the men in your life at risk but not knowing the signs and symptoms of this increasingly common disease. Well, joining me today to discuss this is Meg Burgess, a specialist nurse from The Prostate Cancer Charity, and also father of British actor Max Beesley, we’ve got Maxton Beesley here, who was diagnosed with prostate cancer 5 years ago. Welcome to the show, both of you, nice to see you.

Well, coming up on today’s show, the warning signs and symptoms of prostate cancer, the treatment and dealing with a positive diagnosis, and of course we’ll be tackling all of your questions live. And if you want to get your questions to Meg and Maxton, then please do use the box on your screen, click send, and of course we’ll do our best to tackle them; and also if you’re tweeting please use the #TheProstateCC.

OK, we’ll start with you if we can please, Meg. Prostate cancer, it’s a scary thought isn’t it? What is it? Where do we find it? What is the problem with prostate cancer?

A: Well, prostate cancer is now the most common cancer in men in the UK, as you say 37,000 men a year are diagnosed with prostate cancer and prostate cancer is where a cell in the prostate starts to go wrong and starts to control in an uncontrolled manner.

H: It’s a scary cancer. Guys go to the doc’s, they get diagnosed with this, it must be terrifying for most people.

A: It is terrifying for men when they’re diagnosed with prostrate cancer, but generally prostrate cancer is a slow growing cancer, and it’s something that’s very treatable.

H: So despite your good work in communicating about the disease, there’s more work to be done. I guess it’s never really complete, your work.

A: No it’s not and we want to reach more men, because we know not enough men know about prostate cancer, and men generally don’t talk about prostate cancer, they don’t talk about their health enough

H: Is it a bunch thing, do you think? A macho image thing?

A: I think it probably is. I think there is a macho element in that men don’t traditionally go to their doctors, and often they are pushed by their wives when there are problems, and they don’t like to talk about issues, particularly when it’s maybe a more sensitive issue or a more sensitive cancer, because of the part of the body that it’s dealing with.

H: Let’s turn to you, Maxton Beesley, dad of Max Beesley of course, the actor. You were diagnosed with prostate cancer five years ago, what was your initial reaction to that?

B: Well, it was devastation and total shock, because I felt absolutely fit. I had no symptoms whatsoever, and it was just part of a routine screening that my doctor did, along with blood pressure, other function tests etc. etc, cholesterol. These flagged up the numbers were high, I went for a diagnosis and a biopsy and it was proved that I had locally advanced prostate cancer. Without the test, I would have gone on and that’s when it could have become dangerous, I think, because it could have metastasized, that means when it spreads into the bones, and after that it’s…

H: How did you know that something might have been wrong though? What sent you to the doctor in the first place?

B: Just an MOT, just over an over 50 thing. I’ve got a great doctor and that’s their policy at their surgery to give you an MOT, like I say for all your other symptoms, blood pressure etc. checking weight, and that just flagged up and he said that we just need to go a little bit further and find out a little bit more about what’s going on.

H: And how did you break this news to your family? You went home with this news, obviously.

B: Well, actually I was told quite abruptly really and sadly, a few doctors have got problems in communicating this kind of news and it was given to me quite abruptly. He said you better sit down and I did sit down because my legs went to jelly, and I could speak, so I couldn’t ask any questions. We were going out, I was dressed, we were going for lunch at the new pub and my wife was in the waiting room, she comes out smiling and I’d gone grey. There was a great nurse there, Jo Dickinson, she was a specialist nurse like yourself, and she sat me down and said listen, things can be done about this and we’re here to help and she reassured us. But until I had the biopsy, which was 2 weeks after the initial diagnosis, we were in a state of total shock and didn’t tell the kids until we knew how serious it was going to be.

H: OK, well we’ve actually got a video clip of your son, Max, and his reaction to that devastating news, really, and this is what he had to say

VT

C: When my father was diagnosed with cancer, it did come as shock to me, really, because he was a very healthy guy, had a wonderful diet, trying hard, and there didn’t seem to be any signs at all of him being ill, so…also the word cancer can really blow up in your face and you can think of the worst, worst, worst things happening and I kind of had a few moments of hysteria, which were then followed by a really good, in-depth chat with my dad, who had a really good grasp and good knowledge of what was going to happen, and what stage he was at with his prostate cancer, and the team that were working with him there were excellent.

Before my father was diagnosed, I didn’t really know anything about prostate cancer if I’m honest, other than my mother’s father, Sam, my granddad, they found prostate cancer in him after he died, he died of something completely different. Since my father was diagnosed, I’m a bit of a hypochondriac so I’ve done as much research as possible into the disease, and I’ve learned quite a bit about it. Actually, I’ve gone a little bit further than that and I hounded my doctor for a PSA test and he said I was far too young, this was at 36, 37, and so I then said is it possible to have an internal to check the prostate gland itself, and he’s like, well you can if you really want to, and I said, well I don’t really want to, it’s not exactly a nice feeling, and I think t hat’s one of the problems with prostate cancer, I think a lot of men are afraid of that intimate inspection and they can feel emasculated or whatever, but that’s completely irrelevant I think, you should totally get that done and I’ve had it done, and as it happens, my prostate was fine, but it’s something that I will keep a constant check on now, because my father has been diagnosed with it.

Well, prostate cancer diagnosed early is an incredibly well treated disease, if you can have a well treated disease it is. Success rates are magnificent and my dad is in total remission now, and I think that’s through being active and really aggressive with the disease. Just as some people might say the disease is aggressive, my dad’s really gone completely the other way with it.

Prostate Cancer Awareness Month is extremely important for the obvious. It’s making people aware of prostate cancer and so for that, that’s fantastic, because people don’t really talk about it that often. It’s growing in numbers, it’s getting very serious out there, but again, it’s a really treatable cancer, so that’s why the awareness month of March is fantastic.

H: Well, your son Max there with a really emotional reaction to the diagnosis. I mean it does affect the whole family, Maxton, doesn’t it?

B: Absolutely. I mean, when you consider 8 out of 10 guys don’t even know where the prostate is, it becomes scary, and obviously, it’s made my son very, very aware of it, so now we can monitor it and keep an eye on it, before things get too developed, because that’s the problem of people getting diagnosed when they’re too far down the road with it.

H: Meg, a lot of guys don’t know where the prostate is, where is it exactly? Explain where it is.

A: It’s generally out of sight and out of mind unless you have a problem with it. First of all, only men have a prostate, and it’s a small gland that sits underneath the bladder, it surrounds the water pipe and it’s about the size of a walnut. Over the age of 50, it can begin to enlarge, and that’s part and parcel of the aging process really. Usually, it’s a natural or a benign enlargement, and it’s that enlargement that come sometimes cause signs and symptoms and problems that will send men to their GP.

H: Early signs are what? Is it difficulty in passing water?

A: Often an early prostate cancer won’t have any signs or symptoms at all, but prostate cancer can cause problems with the water works, but by far the most common problem is this natural, benign enlargement, and the sorts of symptoms it can cause are slowing down, if you can imagine the prostate sitting around the water pipe, it can begin to squeeze on the water pipe, so it can slow down the flow. It can mean that men have to hesitate before they start passing water, their stream can stop and start and there can be some dribbling at the end of the stream and a feeling that the bladder hasn’t been completely emptied.

H: What about different types of…cultures if you like. Ethnic races. Does it affect more one particular ethnic race than it does another?

A: This is quite important actually, talking about the men that are more at risk of developing prostate cancer and some men are more at risk. I think first of all, the greatest risk is age, so as men get older, their risk of developing prostate cancer increases. It’s quite rare to be diagnosed in your 50’s, but men are diagnosed in their 50’s, but the incidence increases in your 60’s and 70’s. In fact, Max was diagnosed when he was in his 50’s…

B: 59

H: 59?

B: Yeah

H: OK. Now the Prostate Cancer Awareness Month has been this month, March, of course…

A: Glen, is it OK if I go back and talk about some of the other risk factors?

H: Please do, yes of course

A: I really don’t want to miss it and you picked up an important point as well, about ethnic background and we know that black men in this country also have a much higher risk of developing prostate cancer. It’s actually a 3 times increased risk for black men compared to white men in this country, and we don’t know the reason for that, there’s lots of research going on to try and find out, but that’s also another risk factor. And the other thing that Max pointed out is family history. If you have a first degree relative, so that’s a brother or father that’s been affected by prostate cancer, that will increase a man’s risk of developing prostate cancer. Those are the three important risk factors.

H: OK, so if you do have someone in the family, maybe first generation next to you, the chances of getting prostate cancer are pretty high, would you say?

B: About 2 and a half times

H: 2 and a half times?

A: That’s right. And that risk rises again if you have a second family member that’s been affected, that will further increase the risk.

H: So it’s vital for guys to get checked out as soon as possible, isn’t it?

A: It’s very important that men that have an increased risk are aware and they may want to go to their doctor and talk about their risk, and talk about being checked out at a slightly earlier stage.

H: OK, as I mentioned just now, March has been Awareness Month for you, what are you doing exactly to increase that awareness of prostate cancer?

A: We’re coming towards the end of Prostate Cancer Awareness Month now and we’ve had a really busy month and there’s been a huge range of different things going on. We’ve had over 500 articles in the media talking about prostate cancer, and there have been a number of events that have been going on, thousands of people have been involved, ranging from just manning awareness stands, to jumping out of aeroplanes doing parachute jumps, and the other important thing that we’ve had of course, is our partnership with Marks and Spencers, and some of the celebrities that have taken part in designing and selling pants for the Prostate Cancer Charity, to raise awareness.

H: OK, it’s the Marks and Spencers celebrity pants campaign, check this out

VT

D: As I’m sure you’re now aware, it is the start of Prostate Cancer Awareness Month and this year we decide to do something a little bit different, and we’ve been very, very fortunate to engage six legends of sport and television. These guys have all given their time to personally design a range of underwear, to be sold in M&S stores and online during the month of March. Our proceeds are obviously going towards The Prostate Cancer Charity

E: The reason why for me is that a guy that played rugby for England and the British and Irish Lions, Andy Ripley, and this guy was 6’6”, 6’7”, 17 ½ stone, 18 stone, and he was a true athlete, and actually he wasted away, right in front of your eyes, up to actually last year, he sadly passed away and it just for me goes to show, it doesn’t matter how big you are, how tough you are, this disease will literally attack anyone.

F: There are still swathes of men in this country who don’t have a clue that prostate cancer is something that she should be thinking about, and there are far too many men with prostate cancer and their families who are coping with that alone, not aware that The Prostate Cancer Charity is there to help them think through the complex treatment choices to help them to live with the impact of the disease.

G: I was sitting with my mates from school, there was 4 or 5 of us and we were sitting down in the pub a couple of years ago, and said my dad’s been diagnosed with prostate cancer and two of my mates from school, the same age, we would have been about 32, 33 at the time, they said, my dad’s got it too, so at that point, none of us knew 3 of our fathers had been diagnosed, all about that same sort of age, they were getting towards their late 50’s, early 60’s at the time. Fortunately, all 3 of them are absolutely fine and they’re getting on absolutely brilliantly, all 3 of them treated in very different ways as well and that’s the really positive thing, if you get it early enough, you can treat it and the treatments are really positive.

I: My biggest worry today was, when I was given my pants, they were in my pocket, they were going to be too small, and Les had an extra large so I didn’t really know what to think of that really, so that was my biggest worry this morning, but no, just listen to the guys. I think it’s great for us to be involved in something like this and any awareness that we can bring is obviously what we’re trying to do today.

J: I got involved in the first place because a good friend of mine who I’ve been going to see West Brom with for about 30 years now, he didn’t turn up to a couple of games last season and I rang him on the way home and I said where have you been, are you alright, and then he just told me he’d been diagnosed with prostate cancer, so it was a big shock to him and a big shock to all of us, so my design is inspired by West Brom. I think you need rubber underpants watching West Brom most of the time…ah yes, the baggies! They’re not quite baggies, they’re quite tight,. Maybe I’ll do a baggies version next year. So that’s why I’m involved. Also I can draw straight stripes and I can’t draw nothing else, I ‘m rubbish!

K: So if you look at the blue on the logo, I’m like that, like the people have spoken about, I’m … especially in the Afro –Caribbean community, it’s not a subject that’s talked about and we’re 3 times more likely to get it than anybody else, so it’s about raising the awareness, I’ve had family members that have suffered with prostate cancer and I do think my pants are the best design anyway!

H: So some very, very famous faces there, getting the message across on the celebrity M&S pants for Prostate Cancer Awareness Month, obviously your work goes throughout the whole year, we’re making very, very highlighted fact that it’s the month for you, but it’s the message that you want to get out there for the 12 months of the year, isn’t’ it really?

A: Absolutely, but pants are on sale until July so go out and buy your pants! But we want to get men talking about prostate cancer more generally, not just in Prostate Cancer Awareness Month, this is why M&S has been a great platform for us, because it’s a platform in the High Street, we’re reaching communities and something like this with celebrities involved is reaching a younger generation of men

H: And it’s driving guys to go to get it checked, isn’t it? We touched on it earlier, this whole macho thing of “I’m OK, I’m not going to go to the doctor, I don’t need to get this checked out”. It’s vitally important isn’t it, Max, that you do go and get it checked out and you do go to the doctor?

B: Well, Glen, it’s just a fact that we are losing 10,000 men a year and we’re becoming a little bit glib with some of these numbers, you know, there’s 10,000 people this and 10,000 people died there, but if you Irish that down to a family, that’s a woman who’s waking up the next day without a husband, you’ve got children who are waking up without their grandfather or their dad, and it’s devastating families and if we can just think of those individually, it is literally one death an hour down to prostate cancer, and that’s why guys…most of those guys are dying of ignorance and it’s a case of getting your head out of the sand and being pro-active about it.

H: Absolutely, OK, we’ve got questions coming in thick and fast, thanks very much for your questions. Let’s go through some of them if we can then; aside from problems going to the toilet, what else are the symptoms Meg? What else should we be looking for?

A: We talked about the problems with water works, there are some rarer symptoms that can present with prostate cancer, and that can be difficulty with erections, difficulty getting or sustaining an erection, and also new pain in the bones, particularly in the hips and back. Now there are a number of other causes for those problems, but those are things to be aware of and certainly to go to your GP if you’re concerned about that or if you have other urinary symptoms.

H: And don’t just put it off thinking it might be flu or something, aches and pains, I’ll have a few paracetamol and forget about it, do something about it.

A: If it’s persisting, then it’s certainly something to get checked out with the GP. It’s not necessarily going to be prostate cancer but something that needs checking.

H: Maxton, is that something that happened to you? Did you start getting achy in the bones?

B: No, no symptoms whatsoever. Just a routine check and that was it, really. And that’s why it’s important for guys to go who don’t have any symptoms, just as a safety bet really, just to say well, I’ve had my test, if it’s raised then it would mean more investigation and then you can make an educated choice as to which way you’re going to go with the treatment, on the advice of your oncologist or your urologist

H: Another question here to both of you; my grandfather died of prostate cancer, am I at risk?

A: I talked a little bit about that family history earlier. It seems to be first degree relatives, close relatives, so particularly father or brother would put a man at increased risk, that seems to be less so when it’s a generation removed, but for that gentleman that inquired, then certainly it has increased his awareness

H: What about, another one here; can leading a healthier lifestyle, for example cutting out the booze and cigarettes decrease my risks? Are they related at all, would that cut out any risks of prostate cancer?

A: Well, in fact, specifically booze and smoking increase your risk of other health related problems, bur in fact there’s not any evidence to link particularly smoking and alcohol with an increased risk of prostate cancer specifically, but does increase your risk of other health problems, obviously.

H: OK, another one here; my dad has been diagnosed with prostate cancer and we’re all a bit confused because he’s been told that he can choose from a variety of different treatments. Surely they know which is best for him, don’t they?

B: Well, yeah. In my case, mine was locally advanced, it had gone outside of the wall of the prostate, so they couldn’t guarantee to remove everything surgically and get every cell and so they had to do…my urologist went belt and braces, which was hormone therapy for 15 months, and then after the first 3 months of the hormone therapy, that’s when I had the radiotherapy, and I had 19 hits at the Christy Hospital in Manchester and that was the way I went, but I do know mates of mine in our support group in Manchester who were diagnosed early enough where they could have a different treatment such as brekkie therapy where seeds are implanted inside and can work from the inside to the outside of the thing and that is less invasive.

H: How did you deal with that mentally, that whole issue of going to the hospital time and time again?

B: I was told all kinds of things. I was told you’re going to be exhausted and you’re going to be sleeping in the afternoon and there’s all kinds of things like that, and to be honest, Glen, I started training really, really hard. I’d always trained, but I started training even harder for this. By then I’d started my diet so I felt psychologically better within myself because I was being pro-active. I was taking charge of the illness and saying that now I am doing something about it, nutritionally, exercise wise and I sailed through the treatment, and I’m sure a lot of the guys out there who would take that advice, I would say listen, take charge of your health, become healthier, exercise more and nutritionally there’s a lot of things, cutting back on saturated fats, red meats, dairy products, cutting back on that kind of thing, makes you feel better anyway, but psychologically you do feel you are taking charge and you’re being proactive and doing something about the problem.

A: And that sort of brings…I’ll come back to the treatment choices again in a moment as well, but that kind of takes us back to the first question as well, because I think maybe what that person was asking was whether there’s anything they can do to reduce their risk of prostate cancer and Max has talked very well there about diet and lifestyle and that’s something that’s very hard to research and get really strong evidence from, but the studies that have been done - and there are lots of them – all suggest that diet does play a part and that by reducing saturated fats and by increasing the amount of fruit and vegetables you’re eating and eating whole grains and a good healthy diet may prevent prostate cancer.

B: That’s an interesting point. The fact is, and we mentioned this last week on the show, that people in Japan – males in Japan – have got a very, very low incidence of prostate cancer because of their diet, but when they come West, and say come to England or America and adopt our diet, then they become just the same as us, so there’s a lot there, but with The Prostate Cancer Charity, they are funding money into this kind of research, and that is what we need to do to find out what is this as a preventative type of programme.

H: OK. Time has unfortunately beaten us, we are against the clock here, but treatment choices very quickly, Meg, what sort of treatment choices are there?

A: Picking up again from what Maxton was saying, that when prostate cancer is diagnosed at an early stage and it’s contained within the gland, there are a range of treatments, the most common treatments are either surgery or radiotherapy, whether it’s internal radiotherapy or external radiotherapy, and being faced with a decision and a treatment choice can be very, very stressful and that’s a very common call that we get at the helpline at The Prostate Cancer Charity, being able to support men and help them in giving them information in being able to make that choice.

H: And Maxton, a final word from you, somebody who’s actually gone through the whole process?

B: I think what we haven’t mentioned actually is how prostate cancer affects women ie: your partner or your wife or your girlfriend or whatever. It is stressful, my wife was so stressed she lost 2 ½ stone and her hair started to fall out because of the stress of this, but she was proactive with me and she instigated my diet and she was very strict with my diet, and I think that it’s very important that we look at it, and women out there should say, we’re going to give our husbands, our boyfriends, a push, because a lot of guys are very, very lazy and negligent in this respect and a lot of times it’s women that say, you’re going to go to the doctor’s, I ‘m going to make the appointment and God bless them for that. And as far as screening’s concerned, we’ve seen the success of breast cancer screening, we’re saving thousands and thousands of lives by the wonderful campaigning work that women have done since 1988 to now and I think that’s also a way forward, where guys are going to get screened and hopefully, maybe in the future…although that is a very dodgy issue, we’ve been talking about it for quite some time before

A: It’s a very complex area

B: It is

H: Too complex to go into now?

A; There is no screening programme at the moment and that’s based on looking very carefully at the evidence and the evidence at the moment seems to suggest that the balance isn’t right between the benefit and the potential harms of screening men for prostate cancer, and that’s very hard to take on board that there can be harms in a screening programme, but there are advantages and disadvantages. What I think it’s really important that men know is that there is this test that Maxton mentioned, the PSA test and that stands for Prostate Specific Antigen. It can indicate that there’s a problem with the prostate that may need further investigation, but there are pros and cons and there are a wide range that men need to take on board to make a decision whether or not to have a PSA test

H: What is it? Is it a blood test?

A: It’s a very simple blood test and as I say, it’s an indicator. It’s not an indicator for prostate cancer, but an indicator to see if there is a prostate problem

B: It’s not foolproof, it isn’t foolproof, but it is an early indicator and if my doctor hadn’t routinely screened me, I wouldn’t be here now, there’s nothing surer

A: And I think that’s the advantage of PSA testing is that it can reveal a prostate cancer, as in Maxton’s case, that needed treatment and Maxton’s gone on to have his treatment and is doing well. The flipside is that many of the prostate cancers that may be revealed from screening may be the sort of prostate cancer that is harmless within the prostate and is never going to go on an cause any harm or shorten a man’s lifespan and prostate cancer’s quite unique in that way, in that not all prostate cancers go on to do harm, but as Maxton said, 10,000 men a year are dying of prostate cancer and so it’s a complex area and a complex decision, but certainly we feel that men need to be aware of the PSA test.

H: Well, we could devote a lot more time to this topic, this subject, but sadly we’re out of time. Thank you both very much for joining us today, Meg and also Maxton, and thank you for joining us and also submitting all of your questions. If you would like any information do visit the website, it’s prostateaware.org.uk or you can call the confidential helpline on 0800 074 8383. Lines are open Monday to Friday 10 – 3 or later on Wednesday. From all of us here today, thanks for watching. Bye bye.