Prostate Cancer is a major killer among men all over Europe. In the UK, 52,000 men a year are diagnosed and one in eight will suffer from the condition in their lifetime.

Like any kind of cancer, early diagnosis is crucial to successful treatment and for that reason, men who can establish their risk levels and respond quickly to possible symptoms by getting checked out will have the best chance to beat the disease.

A Treble 20 Chance For the Future?

Some good news on this front has emerged from an unexpected quarter – the World Professional Darts Championships. A campaign launched by sponsor Paddy Power called The Big 180 revealed that it would donate £1,000 to research efforts by Prostate Cancer UK. Alongside this, it publicised the charity’s 30-second risk checker.

It has now revealed that 90,000 men used the checker during the tournament, five times as many in the same period as a year ago, showing the publicity had done its job.

The Big 180 campaign also captured the imagination and perhaps inspired the players too, as no fewer than 914 maximums were recorded during the tournament, up from the previous record of 901 seen a year ago.

That meant Paddy Power was due to donate £914,000 to the research programme, but the firm declared this “didn’t feel quite right” and rounded it up to £1 million.

Among those particularly pleased was the eventual winner of the tournament, Luke Humphries. While the story of the tournament had been the astonishing feat of 16-year-old prodigy Luke Litter reaching the final, it was Humphries who triumphed on the night.

Amid his joy at the victory, however, Humphries had much to reflect on concerning the Big 180 campaign, to which his own feats had contributed £73,000. He explained: “My father-in-law has battled prostate cancer, he went and got it checked out early, so this is a close thing to my heart. I will be dedicating that one to him.”

The champion went on to say that he would be making a further donation out of his prize money.

While research may bring forth more effective treatments, for now, Humphries’ father-in-law and others may be glad they did get an early diagnosis.

How Radiotherapy Works For Prostate Cancer

Radiotherapy can still be somewhat gruelling. Nonetheless, it can also be very effective in treating prostate cancer, with three possible versions of the treatment available.

External beam therapy directs beams of radiation at the cancer from a machine outside the body, while brachytherapy is a form of internal radiotherapy where the beams are directed from inside the body. A third treatment is metastatic radiotherapy, which aims to tackle cancer that has spread to other parts of the body.

None of these comes without a price, with side effects including intestinal issues such as radiation proctitis, an inflammatory condition that can bring unpleasant symptoms like diarrhea and bowel cramps.

In addition, urological effects can include radiation cystitis, which leads to incontinence and blood in urine among other unpleasant effects. Patients can also suffer from impotence and fatigue.

Given all these effects, any patient will be glad if the treatment they get can hit the bullseye as often as Luke Humphries and bring home the biggest prize of all – beating cancer.

Of course, the big hope will be the extra funds going to Prostate Cancer UK will help to produce new and better treatments in the future that can treat the disease without the side effects of radiotherapy and the other options currently available like chemotherapy, surgery and hormone deprivation therapy.

A New Breakthrough?

Indeed, there are some real possibilities to be excited about. For example, Nottingham Trent University has just published details of research work using a type of molecule called carnosine, which naturally occurs in the human body and in meat.

Carnosine has previously gained a reputation as an antioxidant that helps people age better and may have powerful anti-cancer effects, but only now has its potential to impact on prostate cancer been properly studied.

The effects on both primary and metastatic prostate cancer have proved very promising, with low doses preventing the division of cancerous cells and higher doses killing the cancer, all without harming healthy cells.

However, at present there is a stumbling block in the form of a vulnerability of the molecule to being broken down quickly in the body by enzymes. The solution to this may prove to be a means of constantly supplying it at a slow rate to the affected area, perhaps by injections into tumours, or by developing similarly effective molecules that resist enzyme degradation.

This offers great promise for the future. But for now, radiotherapy could be the best hope for many prostate cancer sufferers.