On a recent rainy Auckland day, former business exec Tony B stood contemplating his options. Tony is a collector of precious things and a lover of the arts, but something he never thought he would add to his list of treasures was the diagnosis he’d just received from his doctor – prostate cancer.

Another of Tony’s gifts is an acerbic wit, and, for a moment, he contemplated that he was now part of a special group of New Zealand men to which only one in eight Kiwi males belongs. On the other hand, this statistic doesn’t impress him; the entrance fee is pricey, and the membership is far too common for his liking.

His reaction to the news was something he could sum up pretty swiftly and came precisely in the following order.

SHOCK: “Hearing the big ‘C’ word mentioned, one automatically thinks radiation, chemo, hair loss, pain, death.

ANGER: “Why me and not some loser?”

RELIEF: “When I was told it was still in the very early stages. That it was totally contained within the prostate gland and was fully operable with a 100 per cent cancer-free outcome.

Self-awareness

“There comes a realisation that one should always make the most of each day because you never know what is ahead or around the corner, and you can never bring back yesterday.”

The thing is, Tony says, prostate cancer has few, if any, easily recognisable symptoms, “except always having the urge to go to the toilet in the middle of the night, which most older people do anyway. It grows slowly in your body and generally is only detected by blood samples or prostate gland abnormalities.”

Until it arrived, Tony admits he knew “absolutely nothing about prostate cancer except when one hears or reads about someone who has died from having it. The old story, it will never happen to me syndrome.”

His advice to other men is that you don’t need to go on a mission to know every detail about it, BUT, to prevent it or stop it from spreading throughout your body, an annual blood test (PSA test) is a 110 per cent MUST.

“It costs nothing, takes five minutes, is pain-free, and the results come within days. Of course, the blood test won’t tell you whether you have cancer, but it will reflect a PSA reading that can highlight an abnormality within the prostate gland. The next step, if necessary, is an internal check by a doctor, followed by an MRI and a biopsy. In my case, it was a two-month process. The old story – the longer you leave it, the worse it gets.

“Prostate cancer can be partially hereditary, but not in our family, and so it was never discussed, unlike heart attacks and other health issues.”

Robotic operation

Tony’s operation was done robotically by Dr Gordon Van Dyk, one of New Zealand’s top urinary surgeons. His prostate was entirely removed, and the process was successful – the cancer is gone. He spent two days recovering in hospital, then seven days with a catheter at home, followed by a further four weeks of isolation – no working and no driving: all up, about six weeks.

Tony still sees himself as “a bright, young, good-looking 74-year-old” with a lot left to give. He knows his story could have been a lot different.

“The bottom line here is that I can’t stress enough how important it is with this type of cancer to catch it early by having a regular PSA blood test. If this cancer grows and expands outside the prostate gland, then it is nearly all over rover. Or, one will need severe radiation and/or chemotherapy to keep it in check and buy some time.

“If, as in my case, it is caught early, then it can be stopped 100 per cent by removing the entire prostate gland. It just means no more ability to have children – my wife will at least be pleased about that at our age!”