Ronny – Interview 42
Ronny was invited by his GP to be screened for prostate cancer as part of a trial. He discovered he had cancer. He was randomised to have radical surgery (rather than monitoring or radiotherapy) and is pleased with how it went.
Ronny received a letter from his GP in 2007 inviting him to be screened for prostate cancer as part of the ProtecT trial (Prostate Testing for Cancer and Treatment). He was aware of prostate cancer because his brother had already had it, and so Ronny went along. He was not expecting that he would have cancer, but thought he might be able to help others like his brother. The screening and further tests showed that he did in fact have prostate cancer.
At this point a decision had to be made about treatment. It is unclear what is the best treatment for prostate cancer or whether to treat it all, because it often progresses very slowly and may cause few symptoms, whereas treatment can cause side effects. It was explained to Ronny that were three different possible courses of action’ monitoring (no specific treatment, but active follow-up to check for developments); radiotherapy; or radical surgery (a prostatectomy). He knew he could drop out of the trial at any point, but decided he was happy to be randomised and let the computer decide which treatment he was going to have. He had hoped he might be allocated to the monitoring group, but he was allocated to radical surgery. He feels it was important that he had a good trusting relationship with the research nurse.
Ronny decided to go ahead, even though he was quite anxious about hospitals and surgery, and was pleased that it was not nearly as bad as he feared. He recovered quickly, and most of his friends were amazed when they heard he had had surgery, because he hardly seemed to have been away. He has had few side effects, though sometimes wears an incontinence pad as a precaution.
Ronny recognises that each person has to make their own decision about whether to take part in a trial, depending on their own views and the condition and treatments involved. However, he is glad he took part, and hopes it might help others in future. He feels the care, support and information he has had have been excellent.