Bill Turnbull, a well known national newsreader (I hesitate to use the word celebrity) here in the UK, has announced that he has been diagnosed with stage 4 prostate cancer which has metastasised to his ribs, hips, pelvis and femurs.
The interesting thing about the story, which was picked up by virtually every news outlet here in the UK was that he claimed that his doctor had advised him that the average life expectancy for this was 10 years, he himself was hoping for 12 years but his oncologist had hoped to get him 18 years. Obviously all these figures are far far more optimistic than existing prognostic figures, so the question is has this been horribly lost in translation (should read months, not years) or are these the sorts of figures we should genuinely be talking about given recent advancements in treatment?
One example link for info although many others are available through any web search of his name - radiotimes.com/news/tv/2018...
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Jlcwonderboy
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It’s all speculation and wishful thinking. I’m not saying that optimism is bad, it’s good .. I was told 50 months. I’m at 35.. The reality is that no man or doctor is god. There are miracles and exceptions to every rule. Keep the faith..
Here's the sad part: How did he know something was wrong? “Well, it’s stupid, really. I’m cross with myself,” he says, jumping up to stoke the fire with ferocity. He had prided himself on not visiting his GP in four years. He’d had prostate tests at 40 and 50, there was no cancer in his family and he “wasn’t aware there was something going on inside me”.
Had prostate cancer screening tests at 40 and 50? Is that the standard in the UK? I had a good doctor in the US who gave me DRE tests every year for my physicals starting in my late 30's. A buddy of mine had this same misconception that prostate cancer screening only needs to be done every five or ten years. I think he was confusing colon cancer screening with prostate cancer screening. He's in his 50's and with my recent diagnosis I hope I got him pointed towards annual screenings.
How do you think I feel ? I avoided drs until I almost died . I had symptoms for years. I thought it was just normal mid life crisis stuff ..I was killing my self. Instead of seeing a urologist. I vacationed to a friends condo in Cabo and was self injecting Human growth hormones and working out by day . At night tequila and party , party, party. I pushed thru obvious urological issues telling myself “ The worst ,that can happen is I’ll have to get my prostate out someday.” I had no idea it could get worse than that. When I came out of the ICU with tubes out of my back and penis .Then I realized what an incredible idiot I ve been in having my own hand in my own near demise . Angry at myself I wasted about 50% of my time post dx on fruitless anger. Now days I’ve found acceptance and gratitude for the air that we breath .Early detection to catch PC before it’s APc is the best way to get a upper hand on this internal time bomb .If I had common sense and not such a big ego and checked at 40 or even 50... I waited til 53 , nearly caput. Years before
maybe I could have tapped danced right over the baby PC.... maybe?... but once APC is full on raging and stopping bodily funtions it’s going to take some tuff treatments , a lot of luck and gods hand to let you survive and gods love to allow you another chance to do good ..and share love in this life. Eternity doesn’t start when you die, it’s already started , be our higher self now to lead us forward with love not fear and ager about how things should be or could be.
I'm glad you posted this, I also thought the figures were a bit optimistic but maybe with the new current treatments and more on the way, he's not far off the mark! Fingers crossed
I read this interview from a famous oncologist, also with a much more optimistic approach to the problem:
"
At this advanced stage, the cancer can’t be cured, says Scott T. Tagawa, MD, a medical oncologist at Weill Cornell Medicine and New York-Presbyterian Hospital in New York City. “But with treatment, many men can live a long time. There are men I’ve been treating for advanced prostate cancer for 10 or 20 years.”
And today even better treatments are available, Dr. Tagawa says. For a long time, he says, men with advanced prostate cancer lived three to five years on average. But that changed since around 2012, as newer, more effective drugs have been introduced. Tagawa says he often starts men on these recently approved drugs right away, “when they walk in the door with prostate cancer that has spread.” This has led to longer survival and better quality of life for many of the men he treats.
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