UPDATE - Issue 18 - Summer 2004
Life is for living. . . says Clive Turner
Yes, I suppose I was one of the lucky ones back in 1995 when through some recurring problems with kidney stones I was routinely examined for any prostate troubles, and after a few tests, found to have some differentiated tumours which, it was suggested, could be of little account, but then again, might be of considerable account! Off I was sent to this Roger Kirby, then a mere nonprofessor, who I clearly recall asked, one Thursday, what I planned to do the next Tuesday. Well, I thought, I would normally get up and go to work as usual. I was 64.
'Not the best idea' said the man, adding his now very familiar and favourite line about 'if you were my dad I would have that thing in the bucket - see you next week'.
And so it was, close towards that year's Christmas, that out the wretched thing came. I was recording a PSA of 7.7 with a Gleason score of 4+3, so it was timely that I said goodbye to my prostate. The London Clinic was at its faultless best, and after five days I went home for the recuperation, which for me, took about eight weeks.
Clive Turner, during a visit to a Cyprus winery
The years passed, and after three, I remember being told that with the PSA stabilising at 0.1 a cure was more or less guaranteed. And after six years with 0.1 still being the norm, a cure was to be taken for granted. But at seven years six months, I had my usual annual check, and the PSA had moved up to 0.2, and then a few weeks later, to 0.3, and then a few weeks further on, to 0.5. This was not good news.
86% chance of no recurrence after treatment
Roger sent me to Mount Vernon Hospital's Dr. Peter Hoskin, an oncologist at Northwood, who after an MRI and a bone scan, pronounced that their conformal radio therapy department would give me 22 sessions which in his opinion would do the business. There is an 86% chance of no recurrence after treatment of this kind, and those odds seemed pretty good to me. Actually the treatment was given a little earlier than would be usual because we were moving to live permanently in Cyprus, and our home in Pinner had been sold by then, with all sorts of financial commitments in Cyprus pressing in upon us.
Nevertheless, Peter Hoskin considered we could safely and effectively get on with it, and so through most of October, I scootered the eight minute ride every morning to Mount Vernon, thankful that we lived so close.
The experience was of course quite painless, with efficiency, time-keeping, and professionalism reflecting the fact that Mount Vernon is a recognised cancer centre of excellence, and I felt very fortunate that the threatened move away of this centre had yet to take place. It serves a huge area and sadly is distressingly busy every day.
There were no side-effects of consequence, other than a little tiredness towards the end of the treatment, and an occasional loose bowel, and the only seemingly permanent effect has been a sense of urgency from time to time, but even that may eventually fade.
In the middle of March I had a PSA test and the number had dropped back to 0.1, which is where I hope it will stay henceforth. But the effect of radiation treatment continues for up to 18 months after the course is completed, and so further PSA tests will be necessary every six months or so to make sure the position has stabilised - as certainly seems to be the case so far.
I knew the form when the PSA numbers started to climb again, because having telephone-counselled many hundreds of prostate cancer patients since 1996, I had gained the knowledge to understand exactly what was happening, and although disappointed, I realised all was by no means lost, and that prompt and appropriate treatment, as ever, was the way forward.
There is Casodex and there are other drugs which inhibit further encroachment, but if the prostate bed has now been sufficiently irradiated, those drugs should be only a backstop and an unlikely one at that.
Positive thinking will play its part as well, and in the sunshine and calm of Cyprus in the hills above Paphos, life is for living!
Many of our readers will have encountered Clive Turner. For many years his was the voice of experience talking with newly-diagnosed patients helping them to make informed decisions about their future treatment. He eventually became such an authority doing this invaluable work that he wrote the Frequently Asked Questions section on our web site.
Many owe him a deep debt of gratitude. We shall miss him and wish him well, in every sense of the word, in Cyprus.