Change of culture demands health becomes a priority

LOOKING after their health is not a huge priority for many men. But when it comes to cancer, doctors and campaigners are trying urgently to raise awareness about the importance of seeing a doctor quickly with any suspicious symptoms, rather than putting it off until it is too late.

That men are so reluctant to see a GP has been blamed for the fact that in many cases cancers are diagnosed too late for treatments to be effective.

Each year about 7,700 men in Scotland die from the disease, with lung cancer the most deadly type, accounting for more than 2,100 deaths in 2006. But an increase in cases of prostate cancer – up 16 per cent in a decade – is also causing concern.

Much of this increase has been put down to a rise in PSA (prostate specific antigen) testing, but there are several concerns about the test.

Firstly, only about a quarter to a third of men with abnormally high PSA levels will have prostate cancer.

The rest will not have cancer, but will still have to endure anxiety and discomfort with further tests to confirm if they have the disease or not.

The test can also miss some prostate cancers, with up to a fifth of men with the disease having normal PSA levels.

These drawbacks mean it is unlikely that PSA screening will be introduced until a more sensitive test is devised, to avoid treating men who did not need it.

The recent discovery of new genetic links to prostate cancer could help to speed up such a test. But even without a screening programme, more men are now surviving prostate cancer. The disease causes around 800 deaths a year – down 8 per cent in ten years.

Campaigners would like to reduce this even further. The same is true for testicular cancer, which accounts for only 180 cases annually in Scotland.

Nadia Ramsey, of the Everyman Campaign, said: "More than 37,000 men are diagnosed with prostate and testicular cancer in the UK each year.

"It has now overtaken lung cancer as the most common male cancer. Testicular cancer is the most common cancer in younger men, a group who often don't think they'll be affected by the disease."

Ms Ramsey said that raising awareness of the symptoms of cancer is also vital to reducing diagnoses.

"This is particularly important for testicular cancer, as it is 99 per cent curable if caught in the early stages," she said.

While lung cancer cases in men are falling, as smoking rates decrease, it is still by far the biggest killer – accounting for almost 30 per cent of cancer deaths.

Survival rates have improved very little in 20 years, and campaigners believe a lot more could be done to increase the numbers surviving the disease.

Mike Unger, chief executive of the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation, said: "You only have to compare our survival rates with the rest of Europe, and only Malta has lower survival.

"Part of the problem is that people don't go to their doctor with their symptoms early enough."

Bowel cancer is the third most commonly diagnosed cancer in men, making up almost 15 per cent of cases and 11 per cent of deaths.

While increasing numbers are surviving the disease, there are still issues over access to treatments across the UK.

The drug Avastin has been rejected for use on the NHS in Scotland as it is not deemed cost-effective.

Ian Beaumont, of the charity Bowel Cancer UK, said: "

There are still significant issues around lack of access to these treatments, which is forcing people to pay for them privately.

"Many patients are, however, campaigning to get them on the NHS, by appealing against health-authority decisions."

Lab-based battle goes on for drugs that will save lives

ACROSS Scotland, more than 1,000 researchers are hard at work searching for the next generation of treatments to tackle cancer.

In Glasgow alone, 400 scientists are looking into possible new drugs to target the disease.

Among those leading the effort is Professor Jim Cassidy, professor of oncology at the Beatson Institute, funded by Cancer Research UK and with strong links to Glasgow University.

He said the research being carried out in Scotland covered a large number of areas.

"Part of the research is what we call basic – people playing with cells and looking to see what are the mechanisms that drive cancer in a cell.

"The other extreme of that is clinical research, which is trials in patients," Prof Cassidy said.

"Then there is a team in the middle who try to take those ideas from the lab into the clinic, and vice versa, so we can learn and test ideas in humans."

Prof Cassidy said around 12 new compounds were being tested in early trials in Glasgow.

But he said only around one in ten would go on to be used in later, large-scale trials.

"Sometimes they work well in animals, but in humans they don't work," he said.

The researcher, speaking in his lab in Glasgow, said it could take as long as 11 years for a drug to go from early trial to commercial use.

But development times were getting shorter, although drugs still cost millions of pounds to bring to market.

"It is essentially a thing that only a drug company with its investor base can take on.

"Even a big charity like Cancer Research UK would find it difficult on its own, so they tend to get into partnership with a company at the stage where a drug looks interesting," he said.

Prof Cassidy predicted that personalised medicine would be the future of cancer treatment.

"The next big thing in cancer is going to be the ability to select which patients will respond to which drugs – an individualisation of therapy based on the molecular profiling of their tumour. "That is just around the corner. Within five years I am convinced we will be doing that with the vast majority of people with cancer."

Prof Cassidy said such an approach could also be used to solve the problem of drugs being too expensive for the NHS.

He said another aim was to create treatments which had fewer side-effects so people could get on with their lives with as little disruption as possible.

"That in itself would be a good thing," he said.

"So it is not all about cure. It would be lovely if we could cure everybody, but I'm not naive enough to think that within my lifetime we'll get there."

Positive thinking in battle to beat disease

FROM the start, Kenny Falconer had suspicions about the lump that appeared on his arm last year. "I had a fair idea of what it was," he said. "You can't help thinking about these things."

After a series of X-rays and MRI and CT scans, the lump was found to be a cancerous tumour. Almost immediately, he began treatment at Glasgow's Beatson Cancer Centre, with chemotherapy to shrink the growth.

He said: "I thought right from the start that I had to approach this and fight it positively."

Mr Falconer, 43, a Ministry of Defence policeman from Cove, Dunbartonshire, said the hardest thing was when he and his wife, Fiona, told their twin girls, aged 15, he had cancer.

He was relieved to learn it had not spread, and after chemotherapy, he underwent radiotherapy. He says he has continued to fight the disease in a positive way.

Fought disease twice with help of surgery

BRIAN Mason was diagnosed with prostate cancer over three years ago. Having successfully fought off the disease, he was shocked to discover that cancer had returned last year.

This time, doctors diagnosed olfactory neuroblastoma – a tumour behind his eyes and under his brain. The 67-year-old was at first told his breathing problems could be down to a polyp blocking his airway. But tests revealed something more sinister.

"The consultant described slicing across my head, peeling back the skin, taking away the forehead bone and removing the cancer. After that he said they would cut down the side of my nose, take that out of the way and take the cancer out of the bottom bit.

After the operation, Mr Mason, from Coldstream, went in and out of consciousness for several days. But the operation was a success. He went on to have chemotherapy and radiotherapy at the Western General in Edinburgh.

He has now finished treatment and is looking forward to a holiday in Disneyland, Florida, with his wife and grandchildren.

Disease hit after lifetime smoking

PATRICK O'Neill was aged just 12 when he started smoking.

Then last year, at the age of 60, he was diagnosed with lung cancer.

"I was not really worried about smoking and cancer," he said. "You don't really think about it when you are doing it. I was about 12 when I started but

it's not going to make any difference now; the doctors told me that, otherwise I would stop. It is one of my last pleasures."

Speaking at the Western General Hospital in Edinburgh where he was having radiotherapy, Mr O'Neill said his diagnosis was a shock. The social care worker collapsed at work with a suspected heart attack. Further tests revealed he was suffering from cancer. Mr O'Neill, from Glenrothes, Fife, said: "The doctors are just slowing it down, that's all they can do."

Sadly, Mr O'Neill died last month in a hospice near his home. His wife, Grace, said: "We had expected it for a while, but it was still a big loss."

Day by day, hoping for better times

IN THE past two years, William Benson has had to deal with the deaths of his two sons and a brother.

At the same time, he has also been undergoing treatment for bowel cancer.

"I've really had a bad time of it," he said. "They were all just found dead.

"You always expect your sons will bury you, rather than the other way round.

"It has been a really hard time, with the cancer to cope with as well."

Mr Benson, from Paisley, began his battle with the disease in 2006.

"They cut a bit of the bowel out and sent it away. The biopsy came back saying it was a rare cancer," the 57-year-old said.

Further tests found a shadow on his bladder and abdominal wall.

"To start with it was a bit of a shock," he said. "But after the first operation I got back on my feet and I did not feel too bad."

After major surgery, in which surgeons took out part of his abdominal wall and filled it with a nylon mesh, Mr Benson also had to go through chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

He continues to go to the Beatson Cancer Centre for check-ups and repeat doses of his chemotherapy drugs. Mr Benson even returned to work as a bus inspector after six months off sick.

"I don't know what the drugs inside me are doing but I feel OK and I feel fit enough to work," he said.

His wife, June, added: "He's never been one to sit around. He could not wait to get back to his work."

The family members are now keen to get on with their lives and look forward to a happier future.

"We are just going day by day and hoping everything is OK," Mr Benson said.

"I try not to worry about it or think about it too much," he added.

"If I go not well again, I go not well again, but for now I feel OK and just want to get on with life."