Prof Brian O'Neill

Well, there's a variety of options.

The majority of prostate cancers that are detected are localised to the prostate.

There's no evidence of disease outside the prostate.

Okay.

And so those men need a prostate treatment.

That is usually radiotherapy or surgery.

And it's really important that there is an unbiased conversation with all the appropriate people about what that man's options are, what the pros and cons are.

And in many cases, what's strange for the patient often is they decide what they want rather than us telling them what they want.

And it's important we give them time to make those decisions on the right information.

Because there are side effects, they can be unpleasant and the treatments are different.

And we don't want someone finding out afterwards about these things.

We've got to inform them before.

And the good thing is in prostate cancer is actually you often have time.

We often see people four weeks after the initial appointment to give them time to make the decisions and think about it.

Yeah, so there's some immediate side effects to any treatment, but what patients focus on is long-term side effects and it's almost always those two things.

It's will I have urinary incontinence and will there be any effect on sexual function?

What's very important for us meeting people is very often men's priorities are different.

Some guys will say, well, look,

I just want the best treatment that gives me the best chance of being cancer free.

Another guy might say, well, actually, sexual function is the most important thing.