Prof Brian O'Neill

Good morning.

Thanks for having me on.

So prostate cancer is a major issue for Irish men and men internationally.

On the island of Ireland, there's more than 5,000 new diagnoses a year of prostate cancer.

It's about 4,000 for the Republic of Ireland.

Now, a lot of these, it's important to say, are actually very low-grade forms of prostate cancer, and many of these can actually just be surveyed safely.

But, of course, there are more high-grade forms which can be a threat to men.

So the prostate is a walnut-sized gland.

It sits below the bladder in the male reproductive system.

It has a reproductive function.

And importantly for us treating the prostate, there's a tube that runs through the prostate called the urethra, which delivers urine from the bladder through the prostate out.

So why it's so prevalent in men is a little unclear.

Prostate cancer is unusual in lots of ways.

And we're used to in lots of cancers having defined risk factors that we can avoid and make ourselves healthier, like smoking, obesity and alcohol and so on.

prostate cancer these are a lot fewer so it's advancing age and family history and not an awful lot else so there's not much you can do to avoid it well indeed the there are also some rare rarely people are at risk from genetic causes but it's really advancing ages advancing age and being a man are the risk factors

Yeah.

So that's an important point about symptoms, that the majority of patients that develop prostate cancers don't actually have symptoms.

Oh.

So men, as they get older, their prostates get larger and they develop symptoms naturally from that.

If a man develops symptoms quickly, like any urinary symptoms, getting up more at night, having to go more often during the day, having to rush to the toilet, it is important to seek medical advice based on that.