Cancer Research UK main site

Dendritic or not

LifeTrekker
Offline

I was diagnosed with Prostate Cancer on 10 November  from MRI and biopsy on 17 October - stage T3a  - gleason score of 3 + 4 =7 - 4 of 18 cores with a PSA 3.2 (Aug 23)  - my NHS consultant wrote to me on 28 November and stated that there is "no urgency " in deciding my treatment

I was offered by the NHS on 10 November prostate removal or radiology with pre hormone treatment - I am very keen to find an alternative and have been researching various alternatives - nano knife - cryo - electrical and photodynamic therapy, together with dendritic cell therapy .

I have spoken to a Dr at a clinic in Southampton and he is confident that nano knife procedure offers the best tried and tested option  and also being highly critical of the more contemporary options of dendritic cell therapy being quite critical of the German medical regulatory regime which allows the offering of untried untested and apparently not very successful therapies one being dendritic cell therapy

Dendritic cell therapy appears to offer the best curative and 'removal' option - such therapy is only available abroad and specifically at this stage only in Germany.

My question is relatively straight forward - as dendritic cell therapy appears to offer the best treatment option - what are its rates of success? Also does Cancer Research UK have a forum for prostate cancer patients and their stories of success and failure

Many thanks for being there

Tim (Raising a net £7,500 for Cancer Research in 2015 running the Marathon des Sables)

  • Good morning LifeTrekker

    Thank you for your post. I can see you have also posted in our Ask The Nurses category, so with regards to any clinical questions, one of our cancer nurse specialists will get back to you on that thread in due course. I just wanted to answer your question about a prostate cancer forum.

    Cancer Chat provides help and support for all cancers, of which there are more than 200 known cancers. For this reason, we don’t offer individual forums for specific cancer types but we do have many members who have had prostate cancer treatment who use Cancer Chat. Some of the members who have posted most recently are  ,  and  . You can also find lots of threads related to prostate cancer by using the forum search function at the top of the page to look for the term "prostate". 

    We thought you might also find it of interest to read about two patients who have had different treatments and who have shared their stories on our website

    https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/our-research/our-research-by-cancer-type/our-research-into-prostate-cancer/prostate-cancer-patient-stories

    We hope Cancer Chat will give you the support you need but please don’t hesitate to ask our nurses or give them a ring if you need to talk anything through.

    We also wanted to say a huge thank you and congratulations for raising so much money by completing a marathon, and no ordinary marathon at that! Your support makes a huge difference and allows us to continue our life-saving research. 

    Best wishes, 
    Jenn
    Cancer Chat moderator 

  • Offline in reply to Moderator Jenn

    Dear Jenn

    Many thanks for your reply and it is clear that the support goes broad and deep which I will follow up

    Dreadful error, while I have made donations to and completed little sponsor efforts for Cancer Research UK , I realise that the £7,500 I raised on the MdS was for ALZHEIMERS research!! I am so sorry for having misled you -- it was late last night and after having spent the evening following up various proposals for and the possibilities of alternative treatments for the prostate cancer and then reviewing reviews on Trust  Pilot etc and THEN  having found your forum, I was on a role and I just wasn't thinking straight!! Profuse apologies! I hope I won't be "banished from the Kingdom"

    Best

    Tim

  • in reply to LifeTrekker

    Hello Tim

    Don't panic - we don't banish people from the Kingdom for little errors here.  We're still very grateful for the support you've shown to CRUK. And we're still very impressed that you completed MdS!

    Best wishes, 
    Jenn
    Cancer Chat moderator 

  • Offline in reply to Moderator Jenn

    Dear Jenn

    I just wanted to post a simple question following on from the above on dendritic cell therapy as follows: "has any one had or considering having photodynamic therapy for prostate cancer? If so what has been your experience(s). I am considering having this and would be grateful for any feedback?" - thanks - Tim

  • in reply to LifeTrekker

    Hi Tim, 

    If you would like to ask others about this it may be best to start a new discussion about this topic.

    I hope this information we have about photodynamic therapy helps as well but if you have any further questions, you can give our cancer nurses a call on 0808 800 4040, Monday - Friday between 9a.m - 5p.m.

    Kind regards,

    Steph, Cancer Chat Moderator

Speak to a nurse

Quick links

Follow us

Registered with Fundraising Regulator (logo)
Cancer Research UK is a registered charity in England and Wales (1089464), Scotland (SC041666), the Isle of Man (1103) and Jersey (247). A company limited by guarantee. Registered company in England and Wales (4325234) and the Isle of Man (5713F). Registered address: 2 Redman Place, London, E20 1JQ.