Men’s Cancer Therapy Trial

Men in Cardiff are playing a leading role in a worldwide cancer check that could lead to a major change in the treatment of the disease.

More than 12,000 middle-aged and elderly men are being recruited for the trial to try to discover the best form of treatment for prostate cancer.

The 50- to 69-year-olds are being offered a simple blood test to check whether they have any early signs of the disease which kills up to 9,000 people each year.

The pounds 14m study on the incidence of the disease – which is predicted to overtake the rates of breast cancer in women – follows increasing concerns that patients see prostate cancer as a death sentence and that current treatments are too extreme.

Consultant surgeon Mr Howard Kynaston, an expert in the disease at Cardiff’s University Hospital of Wales, said the Cardiff trials, which started in 2002, would be followed up in 10 years’ time to check on the success of the project.

Mr Kynaston is supported in the project by Sister Amanda Jones. She is leading the trials, which are conducted by nurses who carry out the vital blood tests which indicate if a patient has the cancer and then counsel them on the forms of treatment available.

Mr Kynaston said: ‘Prostate cancer is unlike most other cancers in that it can be very slow growing – in fact with regular checks men can live with it without any treatment at all.

‘Unfortunately, when prostate cancer is mentioned, patients believe it is a death sentence and this is far from the case.

‘The test is very effective in picking up the early signs of the cancer but generally prostate cancer is not as aggressive as lung or skin cancer and may not need surgery or radiotherapy as the first line of treatment – it can be simply monitored with three-monthly checks

‘The more aggressive forms of treatment can severely affect the quality of a patient’s life and our trials to date show that this may not be necessary.’