Cyclist Sir Chris Hoy announces his cancer is terminal

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When I read this article, the hair stood up on the back of my neck. March I was diagnosed with BPH, I was diagnosed with prostate cancer in April, and in May had a prostatectomy. The whole thing seems like a whirlwind dream.

I had no idea I was having problems! It was and is all a shock. I ended up being diagnosed with BPH, an MRI, then a biopsy that found cancer, and then the surgery! BAM BAM BAM: March, April, May…

I wanted to put off the surgery. I had heard all the horror stories and thought that it was the end of the end, and everything would change. Looking at it now, sure, some things did change, and I’m cancer free, but the thing I’d like to say is I could have been in his shoes!!

I had a gigantic prostate, and NO SYMPTOMS. Peeing at will, no blockage, no difficulty. The only indication something was up was my PSA (which had been trending higher over the years), which after taking 2 weeks off riding dropped to just above what they consider ‘high’. I had been referred to urology, and the doc recommended, practically demanded, an MRI. (He was an older doctor, just a couple years older than I am, and yet he was up on current treating modalities) The finger only allows for a limited amount of contact with the prostate, and ultrasound isn’t able to clearly view it with all the other stuff in that packed area. The MRI showed BIG, and also indicated possible CA. I was biopsied a couple of weeks later (the process sounded horrific, but I had no post-procedure issues). They took 18 small plugs, and some of them had active cancer. I was judged to be an 8 on a 1 to 10 scale. :hushed:

Between the MRI and biopsy I consulted with a surgeon on options. He said that it had to come out anyway because it was so large and would schedule the procedure based on what the biopsy showed. Getting the results, he put me on the schedule, and I was on the road to somewhere… They had a cancellation and I had just days to psych myself out over it. (Good call on the timing)

Post op, I was ruled a 7 on the 1 to 10 scale. (Stick with me for the end) I’ve had issues post-op, but the biggies resolved within 6 or 7 weeks.

At the time I thought I could put this all off, that I could wait a couple more years before going through ‘all that’.

Two weeks ago I heard about a friend of a friend who was in a similar situation, a bit younger, but had been diagnosed with the same progression I was. Oh, BPH, Oh, cancer, but under advice of his physicians, put off the operation for 2 years. Then, he had an MRI of his head. He was having minor headaches, and they were apparently ruling out some things, and saw something. They scheduled a PET Scan, and found plenty more spots. He went from stage 0 to stage 4, and the cancer had metastasized to his brain, with several bone mets, along with other areas. So taking a year or so off allowed his cancer to spread like wildfire, and I was thinking I could take a year or so off too.

The moral of this story I guess is GET TESTED, get a PSA. Get an MRI, if only for a ‘baseline’. Act on any evidence they come up with. The biopsy was inconvenient, but wasn’t anything at all. Getting the diagnosis and having a clean PET scan was such a relief, and post-op, I can’t imagine what it would feel like knowing that I had cancer because I didn’t act on it at the time. (I wonder what steve jobs went through, wow)

But my heart sank reading this article. I’ve met and heard from so many men all of a sudden that have had prostate cancer and a prostatectomy. It almost seems like an epidemic. Like women having breast cancer, so many being diagnosed with it. Shocking… And TALK ABOUT IT! If you have had prostate cancer, talk about it. It seems like there is a measure of silence surrounding prostate cancer. It is also a ‘silent killer’. I’m shocked at the number of men that have died of prostate cancer. And I could have been one.

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Wow, thanks for sharing. I am glad you are having what sounds like a positive outcome. You are right about it being almost like “men’s breast cancer”. Each year, in the US, there are around 35,000 deaths from prostate CA and around 40,000 deaths from breast CA.
The best bet, for most men, is to stick with non-invasive evaluation for this…either a PSA or an MRI (if you can get your insurance to pay for it). Also, look at family history, symptoms, and race (black men are more at risk than other races).
I was having urination issues and it had me concerned because I’m over 50. Ends up I had prostatitis from cycling and it cleared with antibiotics. But, it did lead me to get a PSA (my second one) just to make sure something else was not hiding that caused me to all of a sudden start having prostate issues.

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I didn’t get a peep from my insurance company over the MRI for some reason, but according to the local urologist, it’s become the test over the finger or ultrasounds. It was a quick procedure, and got the results back pretty quickly too. The local hospital overcharges for MRI’s compared to other sources. Yet they covered most of it. They complain about some stuff from time to time. Maybe I got lucky, although I did have a history of PSA’s trending upward.

I just feel to weird when I hear about men who had it ‘sneak up on them’. Men need to get tested! I feel, and the surgeon I had confirmed ESPECIALLY cyclists. He said that genetics doesn’t usually track like breast cancer, but research is getting into certain professions or hobbies that irritate the prostate could be very well ‘causing’ prostate cancer, or he said ‘pissing it off enough it strikes back’. But like so much in complex systems, there are riders that never have any prostate problems, and riders that have no ED symptoms. I’m not one of them, unfortunately.

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I read somewhere that 1 in 5 men will develop prostate cancer in their lifetime. That’s a huge red flag.

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If you live long enough, it is a question of “when”, not “if”…

Make sure you get your PSA checked annually. Early diagnosis is critical…catch it early and the survival rate is very high.

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I also heard that his father and grandfather had prostate issues so, sadly, I’m surprised he didn’t have this checked. I kinda expected an Olympic athlete ( and I appreciate that’s in the past) to be used to having regular checkups.

Regardless, horrible news and I wish him the best.

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It should also be noted that his wife has also been diagnosed with an aggressive form of MS…tragedy on top of tragedy.

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I heard something more like 100% of people with a prostate will develop prostate cancer, but it isn’t necessarily the thing that will put us in the ground.

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Well, it is a matter of when, for most men, than if, but there are men that do not develop prostate problems. I wish I was one of them, but wow. Researchers are working to find out what their secret sauce is that keeps them from having a pissed off prostate. It’s like weight too. My uncle can’t gain weight. It’s crazy, but he has also lived with MS for most of his adult life, and prostate cancer too. Weird.

But do NOT think that because no males in your family tree developed BPH or prostate CA, that you will be somehow immune. Everyone I’ve dealt with says there is no evidence linking family to the probability of developing prostate CA. Many men have no familial history of prostate CA, and still develop it.

I discussed my ‘management’: not riding for a week after a ‘high’ PSA, with my surgeon and he said it’s not so bad because the referring doc was looking at the trend, and it wasn’t looking good. Yes, I COULD get my PSA down by not riding, but those numbers were trending up too. So stopping riding before a PSA test might be a good idea, but getting a pre-stoppage, and a post-stoppage level and look at the trend is possibly a better idea. But follow your physician/surgeon’s recommendations, and get a second opinion if you don’t feel comfortable.

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I had an older physician for many years, and he was pretty on with current research and what was happening in health for men. He was actually the first one that ever did a breast exam on me after having a patient actually have breast cancer. Unfortunately for the patient, he was too embarrassed to mention the problem to his physicians, and had to switch to the one I had, and he noticed an asymmetric change in his chest. Turned out the poor guy had stage 4 CA. That doc also required me to get PSA tests every year, and freaked the first couple of years they were just barely high, I’d quit riding, and they would go do way below that. Ironic that HE developed prostate CA. He told me once that if I lived long enough, I would develop it, and TA-DA!! I have apparently lived long enough. :sunglasses:

Men need to get tested, and wives, family, friends need to make sure people, and they, get tested and managed accordingly.

Most men with prostate CA, caught early enough, do not have to die from it. I feel so relieved that I seem to have dodged that. It’s not a great way to die, but are there ANY ‘great ways’?

Get tested, everyone…

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I have a friend who had male breast cancer. He did a Ted Talk about it because he realized every guy he knew had no idea it could happen.

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I think it’s higher than that, but yeah, it’s nothing that announces itself. The prostate is buried in the lower abdomen, and it’s not like there is a definitive test that specifically looks for that type of cancer. The prostate is also not in a sealed ‘capsule’ like the brain and heart. Cancer finds a way to spread.

Surgery seems to be the ‘best’ way to deal with it, and there are ‘robotic’ laparoscopic surgical techniques that help insure the side effects of surgery are happening to less men. I had urinary incontinence for about three weeks post-op, and only one UTI, with pronounced ED but indications are that’s possibly not permanent. Out of all the post-op complications, incontinence is perhaps the worst. I already had ED from pummeling that nerve. AND my surgeon says that many men have full recoveries. I have occasional light leakage, but it’s way more manageable then stage 4 prostate CA.

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Good for him!! Yeah, I had heard of it, and was aware it could happen, but was still surprised when he checked me for it. He did it fairly frequently after that. It’s not horribly common, but he found another man that was having ‘changes’ to their breast and was curious what was happening, and mentioned it. Yeah, he also had a small mass that was removed along with a lymph node in the armpit. Kinda frightening…

I almost feel like men should have the saying ‘If you see something, say something’ burned into their brains. Too many men seem to suffer through, and ignore problems. :person_shrugging: :man_facepalming:

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Showing my age here, but Peter Criss, the original drummer from KISS, also had breast cancer and he has worked very hard to raise awareness of the disease in men.

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And I’m a nobody dirty old man trying to get the word out to get PSA tests and follow up.

I just remembered that the guy my doc found with breast CA said that it couldn’t be ‘breast’ cancer, because men didn’t have breasts. He was, as I might have said, that he was embarrassed with the symptoms, but didn’t think it was anything bad. To that I’d say stupidity is almost always bad. Oy…

But women ignore the symptoms (of breast cancer) too. :disappointed:

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Human males DO have some mammary tissue, but it’s almost never exposed to the hormones required to have it develop. Even if it doesn’t, that tissue is still the substrate for breast cancers. It’s really depressing that a medical doctor would be embarrassed when having to bring it up. Please, just keep me alive and healthy. I have bikes to ride for as long as possible. I’ll get over any embarrassment so long as I can keep riding.

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It was patients that were embarrassed, some to even bring it up, some that he did.

Yeah, I want to ride as much and as long as I can too. Poke, prod, squeeze, keep me in the fight!!

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It’s funny isn’t it? When I was a younger man, I found all these things so embarrassing. Now that I’m older, I could care less. These people see naked people for a living and have seen the worst of the worst. “Do what you gotta do Doc, keep me healthy!”

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And a body seemingly covered with scars and a cabinet full of old, and current, medications. I’m beginning to resemble… OMG!!! MY PARENTS!! :smile:

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