26/11/2024
As we near the end of Movember, the month where for the last several years the spotlight has been on men’s health, we bring focus to technology advances helping to create better outcomes in prostate and testicular cancers.
In the UK, cancers specific to men – prostate and testicular cancers – have been especially highlighted with cycling legend Sir Chris Hoy’s recently reported terminal prostate cancer diagnosis. Sir Chris is one of the most successful track cyclists and most successful Olympians of all time and a UK national treasure. Sir Chris’s success is legendary for his exceptional physical and mental strength – invincible in the velodrome, calm and modest off it.
We were all shocked by this announcement. Sir Chris is only 48 years old and, on the face of it, very well placed to fight cancer. It also highlighted that we no longer automatically consider a cancer diagnosis to be terminal especially amongst fit people. However, unlike other cancers, prostate cancer can encourage an effected person’s immune system to protect cancer cells, which can make them resistant to treatments. In other words, prostate cancer can be especially hard to treat.
Marking World Cancer Day 2024, Prostate Cancer UK set-out what they considered to be the two most significant advances in prostate cancer treatment over the last year. One of these advances was significant progress in understanding the mechanisms that make prostate cancer resistant to treatment. While the encouraging results were based only on a modest study, the signs are positive that significant progress will soon be made.
The other advance was the use of a drug called Olaparib used already to treat ovarian and breast cancer. Olaparib was also found to be effective in treating prostate cancer. It works by killing cancer cells that have faulty DNA repair systems, and only works for men who have the right genetics. This is a step towards personalised treatments for prostate cancer.
Needless to say, early detection helps prostate cancer outcomes and in Men’s health awareness month the recommendation is to talk your doctor about a PSA test if you think that you might be at risk. PSA or prostate specific antigen is a marker for prostate cancer.
Testicular cancer is relatively rare. However, it is the most common cancer in young men aged between 20 and 34. Testicular cancer is readily treatable especially when it is caught early. The most common early symptom is a lump or swelling in a testicle. Therefore, the best way for treatment to succeed is early detection and reporting to a health professional. So, in the words marking Men’s health awareness month, know thy nuts!
AI models are now very reliable in making diagnosis from various data sources. For example, in the September 2024 edition of Nature a general-purpose weakly supervised machine learning framework to extract pathology imaging features for systematic cancer evaluation known as CHIEF was described. This model is incredibly reliable.
Common treatment for testicular cancer includes surgery, radiation therapy, and chemotherapy. However, of course, these treatments have potential side effects. Recent advances in new treatments are trying to reduce these side effects in particular targeted therapy that uses drugs to target cancer cells leaving normal cells alone. This may reduce side effects compared to traditional chemotherapy. Immunotherapy that uses the body’s immune system to fight cancer is also being considered as a treatment for testicular cancer, particularly for cases that do not respond to normal treatment.
This article is for general information only. Its content is not a statement of the law on any subject and does not constitute advice. Please contact Reddie & Grose LLP for advice before taking any action in reliance on it.
