prostate
Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men in the UK. A quarter of all new cases of cancer diagnosed in men are prostate cancers.
In 2005, more than 34,000 men in the UK were diagnosed with prostate cancer. This number seems to be steadily rising year by year mainly as a result of increased awareness by men, or their doctors, of the disease.
Each year around 10,000 men in the UK die from prostate cancer.
Prostate cancer is suspected if men suffer urinary problems or have a blood PSA test which is higher than expected or have a rectal examination which is suspicious. It is diagnosed by taking biopsies of the prostate with a ultrasound probe inserted into the back passage under local anaesthetic.
The treatment of prostate cancer depends on its stage. In other words, has the cancer spread beyond the capsule of the prostate gland and if so, has it spread to lymph glands or bones and other organs.
Prostate cancer that has not spread beyond the capsule of the gland has many different treatments. This ranges from active surveillance to radical therapy. Active surveillance involves 6 monthly clinic visits to a urologist with a rectal examination and a blood PSA test. If the urologist suspects the disease may be progressing then treatment would be offered.
The thinking behind Active Surveillance is that many men with prostate cancer die with it rather than from it – they usually die of other causes such as heart disease, diabetes, strokes or other cancers.
The Pelican Prostate Cancer Research Centre
The Pelican Cancer Foundation has established the Pelican Prostate Cancer Research Unit at University College Hospital in London headed by Mr. Mark Emberton. He is the lead investigator of the pan-European clinical trial study of HIFU for the treatment of prostate cancer and benign prostatic enlargement (BPE).
The Basingstoke Urology Treatment Unit
The Pelican Cancer Foundation is supporting advances in treatment for urological cancers. In partnership with the Greenham Common Trust, new high technology equipment has been provided to the Basingstoke based surgeons to treat prostate cancer, benign prostatic enlargement (BPE) and bladder cancer.
Multicentred education and research activity involving UCLH, Basingstoke and the Royal Marsden Hospital is under development
