Cycling legend Sir Chris Hoy has been lauded for his bravery in openly discussing his terminal prostate cancer diagnosis, according to a doctor dedicated to raising disease awareness. Professor Alan McNeill, who established Prostate Scotland 18 years ago following the deaths of his wife’s father and grandfather from the condition, believes that Sir Chris will “undoubtedly” make a difference by speaking out.
The comments follow the revelation by the Edinburgh-born six-time Olympic gold medallist that he was given two to four years to live last year.
Professor McNeill, a consultant urological surgeon at NHS Lothian, expressed his admiration to PA Scotland news agency: “He is to be commended for his courage in sharing this, because many people would want to keep it private.”
He added, “What he has done, I presume he has done specifically to try to help others, so I think he has to be admired and thanked for his courage in doing that, because he has a young family and it is not easy.”
Prof McNeill highlighted that Sir Chris’s openness has undoubtedly brought more attention to the issue.
Sir Chris’s own diagnosis follows a family history of the disease, with both his father and grandfather having been diagnosed. Prof McNeill is now urging other men with similar family backgrounds to get tested early.
He stated, “If Chris Hoy can spare others with a similar family history then he will have done a great thing, another great thing.”
Highlighting that “early prostate cancer is curable in the majority of men”, the expert stated that men with a family history of the disease, along with those with “racial predisposition”, such as Afro-Caribbean men, could be categorised as “high risk of prostate cancer”.
Men are entitled to request a prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test from their doctor from the age of 50, but Prof McNeill recommended they get checked earlier.
Given that early stage prostate cancer often doesn’t show any symptoms, he advised Afro-Caribbean men to get tested at 45, and suggested those with a family history should have the check a decade earlier than the age their relative was when diagnosed.
Prof McNeill said: “If their father had prostate cancer aged 60, I will say to the man ‘go get your PSA at 50, if your dad was 55 go when you are 45’.”
He revealed that “at least” 3,400 men in Scotland are diagnosed with the disease each year the equivalent of more than nine a day.
“It is the most common cancer in men and increasing in incidence,” the doctor said.
However, he also noted that “nearly every week” he and his colleagues encounter men in their 50s or early 60s suffering from advanced prostate cancer, and added: “After 18 years of trying to raise awareness with Prostate Scotland, it is obvious we still have work to do. Because for me, every single one of these men in one too many.”
“If we can get men early, when the cancer is still within the prostate, and they have curative treatment, I am not a health economist but I would have thought not only will ultimately their quality of life be better in the long term, but the cost to the system will be reduced over the long term.”
“Because you will come in, have your treatment, and you’re done. Whereas with the more advanced disease there are lots of drug treatments, and probably more blood tests, more follow-up, more scans. So with advanced disease, if we can reduce the incidence it will potentially benefit the health service, ultimately.”
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