Watch the full event here:
Adel Makar and Lisa Capaldi gave a wonderful presentation to the KWPCSG menbership at Kidderminster Town Hall on the evening of Tuesday April 19th. There was wonderful news about robotic surgery for the men of Worcestershire where treatment can soon commence with the sanctioning of a Da Vinci robot to be installed shortly at the Alex in Redditch
The campaign to fund the robot started 7 years ago. The Rory campaign was spearheaded by Ian Dukes. Significant help from fund raiser Brian Wilkes and the KWPCSG enabled a figure of half a million to be raised.
Both Ian and Brian were at the meeting and received due praise for their amazing efforts.
Adel Makar covered many points in presenting the present and future state of treatment for men with prostate cancer in Worcestershire.
The prospect of Robotic surgery was “fantastic” he said and he assured us that every man to benefit from such surgery would be offerred it. The sanctioning of the Robot would also ensure that Worcestershire would attract younger talented surgeons and encourage current surgeons to stay, thereby ensuring continuity for state of the art prostate cancer treatment in Worcestershire.
A massive concern for the future was that over the past 2 years, 30 per cent of men, were not coming forward for testing. The figure nationwide is 14000.
The incidence of PC has been increasing over the last 10 years so it is a massive worry that so many men out there remain undiagnosed.
There is currently a 6 month waiting list for treatment after diagnosis and this may well increase as more men come forward.
“Not all gloom and doom though” said Adel there are many treatments that can hold the cancer at bay for 6 months without significant change . So the message was / is,” dont be afraid, get in the Queue, get tested, dont wait 2 or 3 years when the consequences can be disastrous.”
The message for our group was to continue raising awareness and campaign for men to come forward for testing no matter their race or creed. Lisa Capaldi went on to explain the remarkable advances in the treatment of Prostate Cancer with Radiotherapy.
Following various trials ie the CHIP and latterly the PACE trials, many men needing radiotherapy can now be treated over a period of 5 days instead of up to 32 days which was often the case 8 years ago Facilities for Sabre treatment and image guided radio therapy IMGRT are all now available in Worcestershire.
Currently further trials are on going in the county for men needing treatment to the prostate and surrounding Lymph node chain, this to enable accurate and fast treatment within 5 days.
So the message coming out from the Town Hall was there is never a better time than now to get Prostate Cancer as the treatments available in Worcestershire are amongst the best and most advanced in the UK.
Thus the call remains for the men over 50, come forward, get tested, dont worry!
