PROSTATE cancer kills 10,000 men in the UK each year. Every male will get it at some point in his life if he lives long enough. Reporter DAVID LANGTON spoke to one man who has battled successfully against a likely killer.

Successful businessman Roderick Grant has always been a healthy man.

He does not smoke or drink to excess, and never feasts on fast food. Even his family history shows no signs of hereditary illness.

Despite this, Mr Grant was a whisker away from becoming one of the 10,000 men in the UK each year who die from prostate cancer.

Purely by chance, the father-of-two discovered and successfully battled a cancer growing within him.

He is now determined to raise awareness of this time bomb ticking within the bodies of too many men.

"If it hadn't been for my two friends I would still not know I had prostate cancer.

"Even if just one person reads this article and goes for a test and catches the cancer early it will be worth it," Mr Grant said.

Cancer of the prostate is the most common cancer affecting British men and by the time you have read this article, two more British men will have been diagnosed with it.

The prostate gland lies below the bladder between the pubic bone and the rectum and is shaped like a doughnut it produces secretions that help to nourish the sperm.

Mr Grant, who lives on Temple Island in Bisham, discovered he was a cancer sufferer last summer.

He said: "Last year a couple of my friends discovered they had prostate cancer. They found out through having a prostate specific antigen (PSA) blood test. Although I had a blood test in my annual company medical it appears that was not part of the test."

Rod had a viral infection in July and went to see his GP. The doctor ran a series of blood tests but after talking to one of his afflicted friends Mr Grant asked his GP run the PSA test while he had the blood samples

He said: "My PSA levels were a bit high. The highest they look to see is four and mine was 4.7. He gave me an internal examination and said he was not sure but told me to go for a biopsy where they took six small pieces of my prostate. After that test I found I had a tumour. Up to this point I didn't even know where the prostate was or what it did."

Rod was quickly referred to a specialist in London.

He said: "The first thing I was told is that every man will eventually get prostate cancer. It is just if something else gets you first but if you live long enough you will eventually get it."

There are various methods used to treat prostate cancer, from radiotherapy to hormone treatment. Mr Grant was asked to choose his preferred treatment.

He said: "The first is an operation to remove the whole prostate, the second is eight weeks of radiotherapy, the third is brachy-therapy where they plant tiny radioactive seeds in your prostate and the fourth is hormone treatment which just delays the cancer as opposed to curing it."

After about two months of deliberation he opted for the surgery.

He said: "There are risks with all of them, the two main ones being incontinence and impotence, but with radiotherapy the cancer can also return after ten years and at 58 I didn't want to go through it all again at 68."

By chance, Rod had caught his cancer at the early stages and doctors told him that his chances were good. Despite this hope the thought of wetting himself and no longer being capable of sex at 58 still lurked in the background.

He said: "The risk of incontinence is small but it is there. The chances of being rendered impotent are higher with 30 per cent of people being affected.

"I have to say I was much more worried about the side effects than the cancer."

With no visible symptoms of his cancer, Rod has been left asking how many men are walking around today blissfully unaware that a cancer is slowly growing inside them.

He said: "The thing I really want to stress is I am a reasonably fit individual who has never smoked and with no history of cancer in the family. I had no symptoms to speak of at the time of diagnosis."

Mr Grant's operation was a success and he was back on his feet within two days and out of hospital within ten.

His PSA level is now down to nearly zero and he describes his quality of life as excellent but it will be sometime before he finds out if the side effects will disappear entirely

He said: "The area takes time to settle after a major operation like that but my water works are back to normal. The other thing is taking a little longer to settle but if you compare it to whether you are alive or not it is not really an issue."

Mr Grant added: "Some doctors don't use the PSA tests because it can show up false readings and that is why the doctor doing my company check-up didn't test for it. That has now changed and employees are made aware of the PSA test.

"Personally I would rather have the risk of a false reading and give myself the maximum chance of survival.

He added: "There is very little funding for prostate cancer research. There needs to be a push to get some real funding for this because an awful lot of lives could be saved and the earlier you catch it the better your chances are.

"It is important to get this message across. It is not a thing to be terrified of. We men have a habit of saying 'if I don't think about it it will go away' but it doesn't."

Factfile

Cancer of the prostate is the most common male cancer affecting British men.

Approximately 21,000 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer every year in the UK.

More than 10,000 men die from prostate cancer annually in the UK.

This is approximately equal to 190 deaths per week and it is estimated that this number will increase by almost 50 per cent over the next 20 years.

Britain has some of the poorest five-year survival rates in the whole of Europe.

Prostate cancer receives approximately one tenth of the research funding currently spent on breast cancer.

Cancer of the prostate can be treated fairly effectively even when it has spread. It is however important to catch the disease at the earliest possible stages.

Symptoms can include:

Need to urinate frequently, especially at night

Sudden, uncontrollable urges to urinate

Weak or interrupted urine flow

Inability to urinate (difficulty starting or stopping)

A burning sensation or pain when urinating

Blood in urine

Continuing pain in lower back, pelvis, or upper thighs.

For advice phone the Prostate Cancer Charity confidential helpline on 0845 300 8383 or visit the website at www.prostate-cancer.org.uk