Could you imagine the outrage if this were a report that a state-run health-care system were insisting that it would cover only radical mastectomies for all women, even if the less destructive lumpectomy were a better course of action for a woman with only a small, contained tumor who would be better served by a lumpectomy?

Well, that is comparable to what is hapening in England right now, where the NHS has decreed that it will not cover a less-invasive treatment for men with early-stage prostate cancer which radically cuts the likelihood of impotence.

HUNDREDS of men are being denied an alternative to radical surgery for prostate cancer because the National Health Service is refusing to pay for it, writes Sarah-Kate Templeton.

Hard-up primary care trusts across England have stopped funding brachytherapy, a new form of radiotherapy, although it has been approved by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice).

Doctors and patient groups have accused the NHS of discriminating against men. John Neate, chief executive of the Prostate Cancer Charity, said: “Nobody should have to battle bureaucracy when they need all their energy to come to terms with a diagnosis.”

Brachytherapy has fewer side effects than removing the prostate or giving radiotherapy for five days a week over seven weeks. Only 10%- 15% of men are left impotent after brachytherapy, compared with about 50% of men who undergo surgery.

The £9,000 treatment takes just one day. The patient has radioactive pellets implanted into the prostate gland. These target and kill the cancer.

Brachytherapy is not suitable for all prostate cancer sufferers but doctors believe that it is the best treatment for patients who have small tumours which have been caught at an early stage.

The number of men who die of prostate cancer each year in Great Britain (and, I believe, in the United States and worldwide) is similar to the number of women who die of breast cancer. Funding for the latter, however, is significantly higher -- as is the politicization of the disease.

Posted by: Greg at 01:27 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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