Around one in eight men will develop prostate cancer in their lifetime. It’s more common in black men and men over the age of 65, but can affect any man.
Since the prostate gland grows throughout your life, it’s something to look out for as you grow older.
Prostate cancer symptoms are not always obvious so it’s important to look out for changes in the way you pee. Things to look out for include:
- difficulty when starting to pee
- a weak flow of urine
- dribbling urine before and after urinating
- a sensation of having not totally emptied your bladder fully after peeing
- needing to pee urgently or more often
- waking up in the night to pee more often
These symptoms don’t always mean you have cancer, they can be indicative of other things, such as an enlarged prostate. The important thing to remember is to seek medical advice if you are experiencing symptoms.
This is a surgical procedure to remove the prostate gland. It can be performed as open surgery, or as keyhole surgery.
Keyhole surgery can either be carried out by-hand or robot-assisted. A robot-assisted prostatectomy is a type of minimally invasive, keyhole (laparoscopic) surgery, which our surgeons perform using a robot known as the da Vinci X robot.
The surgeon still carries out the procedure, but with the help of the robot, which the surgeon controls. The robotic console enables the surgeon to make more controlled and precise movements during the operation.
A prostatectomy is generally performed in instances of localised prostate cancer and sometimes when there is locally advanced prostate cancer.
Radiotherapy and Chemotherapy destroy cancer cells in the body.
Radiotherapy does this by using high doses of radiation to kill off the cancerous tumours. Chemotherapy involves the use of drugs specifically designed to kill cancer cells.
Hormone therapy lowers the amount of testosterone your body makes, which helps to slow down the growth of cancer cells. Hormone therapy on its own won’t cure your cancer, so you may be offered this as an option alongside another treatment.
HIFU is a minimally invasive procedure which uses high-frequency ultrasound energy to heat and destroy individual cancerous cells in the prostate. It may be suitable for you if your cancer is contained within your prostate (localised cancer), or if your prostate cancer has started to break out of the prostate and has spread to the area just outside the prostate (locally advanced cancer).
HIFU is a minimally invasive procedure, meaning it doesn’t involve any cuts or incisions to the skin and there is less blood loss. Your hospital stay is also short – often you can be discharged on the same day.
Cryotherapy works in a similar way to HIFU but instead of using heat it uses extreme cold to freeze and destroy cancer cells. The procedure involves the insertion of very fine needles into the prostate, which a doctor will then pass a special gas through to kill the cancer cells.
You might have cryotherapy for cancer that hasn’t spread outside of the prostate. You may also have it for prostate cancer that has come back in the prostate after radiotherapy.
Your hospital stay is generally short – you may only be in hospital for a day or overnight – and recovery is also quick. You are likely to be able to resume normal activities within a few weeks of the procedure
Private prostate cancer consultants in London
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Mr Sergey Tadtayev
Consultant Urological Surgeon
Urology, Uro-oncology
Dr Nick Plowman
Consultant Clinical Oncologist
Clinical oncology
Professor Asif Raza
Consultant Urological Surgeon
Urology, General, Urinary tract stones
Dr Sara Khaksar
Consultant Clinical Oncologist
Clinical oncology, Prostate
Professor Rakesh Heer
Consultant Urological Surgeon
Urology
Mr Hama Attar
Consultant Urological Surgeon
Urology
Professor Hashim Ahmed
Consultant Urological Surgeon
Urology
Mr Benjamin Lamb
Consultant Urological Surgeon
Urology, Robotic Surgery
Mr Mathias Winkler
Consultant Urologist
Urology, General
Dr Alison Falconer
Consultant Clinical Oncologist
Clinical oncology, Brain/CNS, Urology
