New chairman, and change to Brohn lunch

Tim Bond, below, was elected chairman of Prospect at the 2021 AGM. He replaces Malcolm Gamlin, who retired after 13 years in the role. Malcolm was thanked for his hard work. Mick Broggio resigned as secretary but volunteer Martin Webb was co-opted by the committee in July. Other committee members were re-elected at the AGM. Penny Brohn has invited us on July 27 but the arrangements have changed: 1130  arrival and hot drinks. 1200  Speaker: Marcus Hempel, a Penny Brohn Well-being Therapist and also a Shiatsu Practitioner. Marcus is a core member of the small well-being team that leads all online services offered to Penny Brohn clients worldwide. 1300 lunch. 1400 opportunity to walk around the grounds. A ÂŁ10 donations towards lunch is voluntary. To book ring Tim Bond 07824 556786. If he’s am not available, leave a message about the number of places being requested. Tim will confirm your booking. The October 8 walk at Lansdown will be ‘on’ too. Zoom ‘coffee mornings’ are under discussion and might re-start at the Macmillan centre, Southead Hospital, if they agree.

Learn about a variety of topics

A free webinar series is being launched called Living Well with Prostate Cancer.  Prostate Cancer Research is running it in collaboration with Tackle Prostate Cancer, and it will run from next month (August) to January 2022. It includes 18 topics (including nutrition, clinical trials, the NHS, resilience and wellbeing, and everything in between!) – all subjects that people want more support with. Apply here

Enzalutamide (Xtandi) approved

Important news from NICE for the 4,100 men each year who are unsuitable for the standard treatment of docetaxel chemotherapy and who have, until now, had limited treatment options (June ’21).  More here:

Study into black men’s higher risk

In partnership with Movember, Prostate Cancer UK is funding a study to help find out why black men are at higher risk of PCa than other ethnic groups. More here

Research into advanced PCa

Prostate Cancer Research is to fund five new research projects into advanced PCa. It thanked everyone who has continued to support them throughout the pandemic. The projects will target signalling to stop cancer spread; target sugars to stop cancer spread; investigate the proteins that drive cancer spread and treatment resistance; develop software to predict which cancers will return and explore the link between fat and PCa.

Help with hearing problems

For anyone with hearing problems, this equipment is useful to amplify sound via a computer. It plugs via the USB cable and makes it easier to hear folk say on Zoom calls: Sennheiser EPOS SP 20 speakerphone. More here

Advanced US PCa tool approved

The US Food and Drug Administration has approved a new imaging agent to detect PCa after it has spread, the makers say. But it will not replace the PSA test (Jun ’21). See more here

New vaccine ‘could prevent PCa’

See here

Dogs sniff out worst cancers

Dogs can detect the most aggressive forms of PCa and could help develop a “robotic nose” to find the disease, a study says  (Feb ’21). More here. And another study suggests daily coffee drinking lowers PCa risk, (Feb ’21). More here

Take part in surveys

Prostate Cancer Research ask for your participation (from home) in surveys. People affected by PCa are instrumental in shaping what they do, so they’ve launched two patient-centred projects. They’re also running a special  survey with Ipsen UK&I to understand topics that patients find most tricky to talk about. More here

Drugs to fight cancer resistance

The world’s first drugs designed to stop cancer cells becoming resistant to treatment could be available within a decade, scientists have said (Jan ’21). More here

Urine test detects PCa

A new technique detects PCa with almost 100% accuracy within 20 minutes using only a urine sample (Jan ’21). More here

Bone scan breakthrough

A new bone scan technique can identify men with advanced PCa who’ll benefit from radiotherapy. This ground-breaking achievement could help extend the lives of 25-30% of such patients (Jan ’21). See more here

Good news re Olaparib

Olaparib has given new hope to men with incurable PCa, says the Daily Mail in this article.

Big change in PCa diagnosis

The biggest diagnostic development in PCa diagnosis for 50 years – that came about when NICE advised that all men at risk of PCa should have an MRI before a biopsy. The change has had a worldwide effect. See more here

Cancer blood test trialled

A blood test which might be able to detect 50 cancers is being trialled by the NHS (Niv ’20). More here. And two professors have made a discovery that could turn cancer into a treatable disease (Sept ’20). See more here. And minscule robots can seek out cancer.cells and destroy them More here

Check your risk in 30 seconds!

An online 30-second risk checker has been launched which men are encouraged to take –  see here

Good news on abiraterone

NICE agreed to an appeal by Prostate Cancer UK to reverse its decision to restrict abiraterone for advanced PCa (Jul ’20). See more here. UK deaths from PCa exceeded 12,000 in 2019 for the first time and it overtook breast cancer as the most common cancer (June ’20). See more here. And a new type of immune cell which kills most cancers has been discovered. More info here  Screening: An expert explained why finding a suitable method is vital but is difficult. More here

Hormone treatment and Covid-19

Hormone treatment might offer some protection from Covid-19, it’s reported. See more here But it can make PCa worse, this study finds.  An online survey aiming to shed more light on the experience of PCa patients on this therapy (aged 35 to 80) is being conducted via this link And a London college has developed an online intervention to support men with PCa who have ongoing fatigue, and it is recruiting patients to take part. Information here. And an oil-based oral formulation has been found that not only enables a smaller dose of abiraterone to be effective but also has the potential to dramatically reduce possible side effects (Jun ’20). See more here

Patient guide ‘good source of info’

Prostate Cancer Foundation’s Patient Guide (updated to ’21) is said to be one of the best sources of information from diagnosis to survival of PCa. Download it for free here.  Our New Research page is updated regularly.

Drugs approved and a PCa ‘killer’

The NHS confirmed that the chemotherapy drug docetaxel will be made available to PCa patients as soon as they are diagnosed instead waiting until other treatments stop working. See.  And NICE has approved a new drug, Darolutamide, as an option for treating hormone-relapsed PCa in men at high risk of developing metastatic disease. See more here Also scientists have found that a natural insecticide kills advanced PCa cells. See more here More news on the newsletter page.