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Paul Burrell Describes Receiving Radiotherapy Treatment For Prostate Cancer

Paul Burrell has opened up about undergoing radiotherapy to treat his prostate cancer, after receiving the diagnosis last year.

The former butler to Princess Diana and former footman to Queen Elizabeth II told Lorraine on Monday morning (27 March) that he was "very tired" and "emotional".

Asked how he has been feeling, Burrell told the TV presenter: "I'm tired, Lorraine, I'm very tired. I've got five more sessions of radiotherapy to go. I'm very emotional, as you can see.

"But I'm looking forward to getting to the end of it and then I can go on a little break with [my husband] Graham, and we can just be thankful that it's been found.

"In a few months' time, I'll find out whether it's clear or not, and then I get on with the rest of my life. There's a lot to live for."

Burrell, 64, first shared his diagnosis in January and explained he had gone for a full medical examination for a ITV programme last summer.

"Out of that came a surprisingly high PSA test [a chemical released by the prostate gland]," he told Lorraine at the time. "I had no idea what a PSA test."

His GP sent him for an MRI scan and they found a shadow on his prostate. A biopsy revealed that Burrell had cancer.

He has since gone on to raise awareness of prostate cancer and urged all men to get checked.

"You realise that there are thousands of men like me that had no symptoms, I didn't realise what was happening and it could be too late," he said.

(ITV)

In his new interview, Burrell shared a message aimed at women and asked them to encourage the men in their lives to get a PSA test.

"To all your viewers, all the lovely ladies out there, tell your husband to go for a PSA test, tell your love to go for a PSA test," he said. "Because it could help save their lives too."

He added how "grateful" he was to ITV for "picking me to do the jungle". Last year, it was reported that Burrell would star in a spinoff of I'm A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! That is set to air in April.

The first nine campmates for I'm A Celebrity All Stars have been announced, including Carol Vorderman, Amir Khan, Janice Dickinson and Helen Flanagan, but it remains unclear if Burrell will make any appearance given his treatment.

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However, he said that if he had not been chosen to take part he "would still be stuck here today not knowing that I had cancer growing inside me".

"So my journey is a happy one," Burrell told Lorraine.

The author and TV personality has been married to husband Graham Cooper since 2017. He has two sons, Alexander and Nicholas, who she shares with ex-wife Maria Cosgrove.

Robert Kraft's Son Reveals Prostate Cancer Diagnosis, Pushes For Screening With Advanced Prostate Cancer Rates On The Rise

One of Robert Kraft's sons on Wednesday revealed that he has been treated for prostate cancer, as he pushed others to get screened with advanced prostate cancer rates on the rise.

Joshua Kraft, 55, announced that he was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2018 when he was 51, and he received treatment at Dana-Farber Brigham Cancer Center. He underwent surgery in 2019 to remove the prostate gland.

When follow-up tests showed the cancer was starting to return, the president of the New England Patriots Charitable Foundation received radiation and hormone therapy.

Today, Joshua has no signs of cancer. His prostate-specific antigen (PSA) level — used to gauge the presence of prostate cancer — stands at zero.

"When prostate cancer is caught early, it's treatable and often curable," Joshua said. "I tell people all the time to get their PSA tested or have a digital exam. It's one form of cancer that getting ahead of it allows you to get rid of it before it gets worse."

He credits the frequent monitoring of his PSA level with the detection of his cancer at a relatively early stage when he was 51, when it could be successfully treated.

Kraft's advocacy message for screening is especially welcome at a time when prostate cancer rates are increasing, said his Dana-Farber oncologist, Atish Choudhury.

His doctor noted that prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer deaths among men in the U.S., behind lung cancer.

"The American Cancer Society reported that prostate cancer diagnoses in the United States went up by 3% per year from 2014 through 2019 and there seems to be an increased number of prostate cancer deaths over the past several years, despite all the advances that have been made in treatment," added Choudhury, the chair of the Gelb Center for Translational Research at Dana-Farber. "This suggests many patients are being diagnosed much later in the course of the disease."

Most advisory organizations recommend that men at average risk for prostate cancer discuss receiving an initial PSA test with their healthcare provider by around age 50 to establish a baseline level — a point of comparison for later tests.

Black men, those with a family history of prostate cancer, or those with a high risk of developing the disease may be advised to begin PSA screening earlier.

Prostate cancer can produce a variety of symptoms, including difficulty starting urination, weak or interrupted flow of urine, frequent urination especially at night, and blood in the urine or semen. These symptoms can also be a sign of non-cancerous conditions, such as benign enlargement of the prostate — and in early stages, prostate cancer often produces no symptoms. That's why doctors say it's critical that men be screened regularly for the disease.

Joshua advised men "not to fear PSA testing, the digital exam, or biopsy. The most important thing is to detect the cancer early and get rid of it."

Rick Sobey is a multimedia, general assignment reporter -- covering breaking news, politics and more across the region. He was most recently a reporter at The Lowell Sun. Rick is a Massachusetts native and graduated from Boston University. While not reporting, he enjoys long-distance running.

Mapping Technique Improves Decision Making For Prostate Cancer Treatment

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Detailed PSMA PET mapping of cancer recurrence in the prostate bed shows that current radiotherapy contouring guidelines—which determine the target areas for treatment—miss a significant number of lesions and may irradiate healthy tissues unnecessarily. In a new study published online by The Journal of Nuclear Medicine, researchers are calling for the redefinition of prostate bed contouring guidelines to improve outcomes for patients.

Approximately one-third of prostate cancer patients who undergo radical prostatectomy experience disease progression within 10 years. Salvage radiation therapy (SRT) is a potentially curative treatment option for these patients. SRT currently follows contouring guidelines based on expert consensus and does not take advantage of the information available from novel imaging techniques, such as PSMA PET.

"PSMA PET is one of the most accurate methods for detecting tumor recurrence after prostatectomy and, since its FDA approval in December 2020, has increasingly changed patterns of care for prostate cancer patients," said Alan Dal Pra, MD, associate professor and director of clinical research in the Department of Radiation Oncology at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine in Miami, Florida. "In our study, we sought to analyze the patterns of prostate bed recurrence with PSMA PET and see how they compared to current expert consensus contouring guidelines from the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG)."

Researchers used PSMA PET to image the patterns of prostate bed recurrence in 127 prostate cancer patients experiencing PSA persistence or biochemical recurrence after radical prostatectomy. For each PSMA PET scan, researchers assessed the location of recurrent lesions and determined the clinical target volume (CTV) based on the RTOG contouring guidelines. The lesions were then categorized as completely covered, partially covered, or not covered by the contouring guidelines.

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The recurrent lesions were completely covered in the CTV in 53 percent of patients, partially covered in 34 percent of patients, and not covered in 13 percent of patients. In addition, some areas in the CTV had no evidence of lesions at all.

"We hope this study will help redefine prostate bed contouring guidelines for SRT to improve the outcomes of patients receiving radiotherapy post-radical surgery," stated Ida Sonni, MD, nuclear medicine physician and academic researcher in the Department of Radiological Sciences at the University of California, Los Angeles in Los Angeles, California. "Our work confirms the crucial and growing role that nuclear medicine and molecular imaging have in guiding decision-making for cancer treatment. Nuclear medicine plays an essential part in the multidisciplinary management of patients with prostate cancer and facilitates the use of individualized, tailored treatments, which ultimately benefit all our patients."

Reference: Sonni I, Pra AD, O'Connell DP, et al. PSMA PET/CT–based Atlas for Prostatic Bed Recurrence after Radical Prostatectomy: Clinical Implications for Salvage Radiation Therapy Contouring Guidelines. J. Nucl. Med. 2023. Doi: 10.2967/jnumed.122.265025

This article has been republished from the following materials. Note: material may have been edited for length and content. For further information, please contact the cited source.

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