LEARNING MORE ABOUT YOUR CANCER

April 2, 2009, 5:35 am

Your own doctor or oncologist is the best person to answer detailed questions about your specific cancer. However, it can be very difficult to absorb medical information which is given to you verbally when you are feeling vulnerable and possibly very unwell. This section provides some basic details of the more common cancers which affect men, by their site of origin.

It looks first at the male-specific cancers which, by definition, affect only men and cannot affect women. Although they are not necessarily the cancers which affect the largest numbers of men (these are traditionally the lung and bowel cancers), they are the cancers for which men need to have an especial awareness, in the same way that women are especially aware of breast and cervical cancers. The other cancers included in this section are those which are statistically most prevalent amongst the male population. The different cancers are covered in the following order:

prostate cancer

testicular cancer

lung cancer

non-melanoma skin cancers

cancer of the urinary tract – kidney and bladder

cancer of the bowel – colon and rectum

stomach cancer

non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma

leukaemias

Please remember throughout this section that the facts given are necessarily brief and generalized and are intended to provide you with a first step towards understanding more about your cancer. Your doctor and oncologist will be able to give you more detailed information about your cancer and recommend further books or leaflets for you to read in your own time, if you feel this would be helpful. The British Association of Cancer United Patients (BACUP – tel: 0800 181 199 and 0171 613 2121) publishes a series of booklets on different cancers, treatments and related topics. These are available free to people with cancer. Don’t be afraid to ask if you ever feel you need more information.

The mainstream cancer treatments, which are by necessity mentioned here in relation to each of the cancers discussed, are covered in detail in Chapter 3.

A glossary of the more common medical terms which you may encounter is included at the end of the book.

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