News of new prostate cancer treatment

The article is about the use of immunotherapy - using the body’s own immune system to tackle the cancer. This is interesting as immunotherapy has been used with other cancers with good results but not until now has it been found useful with prostate cancer - although the research has not been peer reviewed yet. 

Prof Johann de Bono of the Institute of Cancer Research and the Royal Marsden NHS foundation trust led the work. He says in The Guardian: 

"Under the phase one clinical trial, funded by Vir Biotechnology, 58 men with advanced prostate cancer, and who had stopped responding to other treatments, were given VIR-5500. The researchers found the majority of patients – 88% – experienced only very mild side-effects. They then looked at the level of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) in the men’s blood – a biomarker whereby higher levels can be a sign of prostate conditions. 

"De Bono noted the trial started at low doses, with the dose increasing in stages. When the team looked at data for 17 men given the highest dose, they found that for 14 (82%) their PSA level fell by at least half after treatment, nine (53%) saw their PSA level fall by at least 90%, and five (29%) experienced a fall of at least 99%. De Bono described the results as unprecedented for a disease previously thought to be “immune-cold” – in other words resistant to immunotherapy. The team added that, of 11 patients given the highest dose and whose tumours were measurable, five showed tumour shrinkage. In one case, involving a 63-year-old man whose cancer had spread to his liver, the team found 14 cancerous liver lesions “completely resolved” after six cycles of treatment".

See Guardian article at: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/feb/28/researchers-praise-stunning-results-of-new-prostate-cancer-treatment

ESMO 2025: Prostate highlights

Dr María Natalia Gandur Quiroga gives her pick of the key prostate cancer abstracts from the European Society of Medical Oncology 2025 -this is all about improvements to standard drug treatments - however it although only 6 mins long it requires good concentration for those of us not so well versed in drug names! See it at: https://ecancer.org/en/video/12536-esmo-2025-prostate-highlights

At last an explanation for prostate cancer that makes more sense!

Mark Lintern, architect of the Cell Suppression Theory of Cancer shares his recent insights into the nature of prostate cancer in this great radio show.

Yes to Life write: "Prostate cancer has tended to be an anomaly amongst cancer types, failing to support even the most accurate theories, and has managed to elude rational explanation – as of course has cancer as a whole.

"Mark Lintern has recently turned his attention to this anomaly to see if he is able to explain its workings within his novel Cell Suppression Theory of cancer. His conclusion is that yes, he can explain the process of cancer within the same model as other cancers, but also that the reason its behaviour appears different is due to the signature cell metabolism that sets it apart from other tissues".

I will be sending this link to my oncologist to see what her thoughts might be regarding this.

You can listen to this show “Prostate Proposition” via the link below:

https://yestolife.org.uk/radio-shows/

Or at: https://ukhealthradio.com/blog/episode/prostate-proposition-mark-lintern-architect-of-the-cell-suppression-theory-of-cancer-shares-his-recent-insights-into-the-nature-of-prostate-cancer/

See more of Mark on this blog including links to the podcasts explaining his work: https://myunexpectedguide.blogspot.com/2024/08/mark-lintern-and-his-inspiring-look.html

And here are three articles by Mark on Substack:

https://marklinterncst.substack.com/p/prostate-cancer-a-new-explanation

Here's part two: https://marklinterncst.substack.com/p/prostate-cancer-a-new-explanation-ffe

Say no to Palantir in the NHS

NHS England is rolling out software to run our health records from Palantir – a US spy-tech firm that has supported mass deportation in the US and enabled genocide in Gaza. One of Palantir’s founders is also openly against the NHS. Peter Thiel claimed it “makes people sick” and said that the British people love the NHS because we’re suffering from Stockholm syndrome.

We can’t let a company like this take control of our healthcare system. I've already sent an email to Gloucestershire Health Services - please join me in sending your health services an email.

The Good LawProject have set up a simple tool so you can find out if your local NHS trust has started using the software, and then send an email demanding they say no to Palantir. With the government putting NHS trusts under pressure to adopt the software, we need to act right now. 

If you want to keep Palantir out of our NHS, send an email to your local trust and Wes Streeting, secretary of state for health.

Click on ,link now:

https://notopalantir.goodlawproject.org/email-to-target/stop-palantir-in-the-nhs/

Update 1.2.26: Useful article linking to more on Palantir: https://www.thenerve.news/p/technofascism-us-america-fascism-trump-palantir-peter-thiel-uk-nigel-farage-reform

Petition to support key screenings for prostate cancer

This week the UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) published its draft recommendation to offer prostate cancer screening only to men who carry a BRCA1 or BRCA2 genetic variant. This is not good enough. As I've reported before on this blog this means key people are missed. Those at highest risk are not included in the recommendation, including Black men* and those with a family history of prostate, breast or ovarian cancer.

This is not the final decision. A 12-week public consultation now begins. Please add your name to teh Prostate Cancer Research petition calling on the Government to extend screening to Black men and men with a family history, not just BRCA carriers: https://act.prostate-cancer-research.org.uk/a/say-yes-to-screening ct.prostate-cancer-research.org.uk/a/say-yes-to-screening

* See previous posts re Black men by clicking on the BAME tag below.

Campaign for oncology drugs for poorer countries

I've mentioned previously Inspire2Live and their call to improve access to oncology medicines. Today we launch a new campaign to improve access to essential drugs by poorer countries Below I attach the press release which includes the inspiring Barbara Moss sharing her own experiences in the UK - I was fortunate to meet her in Gloucester a couple of years ago.

Inspire2Live establishes an international initiative to provide access to essential cancer drugs for Lower Middle Income Countries (LMICs) Inspire2Live (I2L), the international patient advocacy organisation, is leading an initiative, together with five of the world’s top cancer scientists as advisers, to enable patients in poorer countries to receive essential and innovative cancer drugs that they cannot currently access. This movement is gaining the interest and help of several existing international organisations who know how to deliver this. Commonly, LMIC patients are diagnosed at a late stage of their disease when their cancer is most aggressive and with no pain relief available.

Professor Ifeoma Okoye, from Nigeria, said: “Every day, I watch patients walk into our cancer centres with more fear of the cost than of the disease. The burden of out-of-pocket expenses for chemotherapy, imaging, and pain relief crushes families and robs them of dignity. The effort by Inspire2Live to democratize access to essential oncology medicines is a necessary disruption to a broken system. We must move from global empathy to equitable action. Affordable cancer drugs are not charity—they are a human right.”

At I2L, we have the support of 30 members from LMIC countries1. We visit, meet, and witness the endless struggle of people with just a few hospitals trying to cover the needs of an entire country and no access to essential cancer medicines. I2L feels compelled to act to address this global inequality. Barbara Moss from Worcester UK, a member of I2L, reflects on her experience in 2006, diagnosed with Stage IV colon cancer and given a prognosis of three months: “I was refused new treatments through the NHS because they were expensive. If my family had not
paid for the biological drug, I would certainly have died. The drug shrank my tumours sufficiently to allow surgical resection. Eighteen years on, I am so grateful to be here for my family. I want others to have the same chance that I had.”

The World Health Organisation (WHO) updates its essential medicines list biennially. There are 83 essential medicines for cancer, of which 13 are patented. Cancer drugs are generally not available in Africa, but could be made available, with no huge financial loss to the pharmaceutical industry, as was done before for HIV medicines. I2L believes that countries could be allowed to manufacture generics, even though drugs are still under patent, keeping within stringent safety regulations.

Pharmaceutical companies have to cover costs of research and failures. However, after distribution is complete in high-income countries, costs for excess production could be reduced by 90% for LMICs, following a similar process as for HIV treatment. Inspire2Live has consulted with itsinternational membership and found that this can be done. Not only will patients benefit, so will industry. Firstly, they are rewarded by scoring higher on the indexes of Corporate Social Responsibility without losing revenue, as they are currently not selling drugs to LMICs. Their 1additional expense is for registration, an insignificant cost. Of real significance, they would deliver the true value of their science: to drive innovation and save lives globally.

We believe that it is inhumane to allow people to suffer and die when there is a known way of
preventing this. We can save lives.

The I2L initiative has the powerful backing of:
• Prof. Mark Lawler, Professor of Digital Health, Queen’s University Belfast.
• Prof. Richard Sullivan, Director, Institute for Cancer Policy and Co-Director, Centre for Conflict
and Health Research, King’s College London, U.K.
• Prof. Carin Uyl-de-Groot, Professor of Health Technology Assessment, Erasmus University
Rotterdam, The Netherlands
• Dr. Wilbert Bannenberg, Founder and Chair, Pharmaceutical Accountability Foundation.
• Prof. Emeritus Ifeoma J. Okoye, Nigeria, Professor of Radiology at the College of Medicine,
University of Nigeria, Nsukka

Professor Carin Uyl-de-Groot said, ‘With cancer incidence rising rapidly in low- and middle-income countries, access to lifesaving and life-expanding medicines must be a global priority. We need a system that not only drives pharmaceutical innovation but also ensures that patients everywhere—regardless of income—can benefit from it.’

Professor Mark Lawler said, ‘How can we stand by and allow people to die needlessly, when a known cure is available? Patients in LMICs have no means of accessing vital treatment. Why do we accept that 80% of the world's population have access to only 20% of its medicine? With so much funding for health being withdrawn from LMICs right now, due to the inhumane actions of the new US administration, in contrast to President George Bush’s successful PEPFAR2, it is imperative that we act now, otherwise many more lives will be lost.’

Our Call to Action stems from evidence gained directly through I2L members in LMICs. A survey conducted by I2L details medicines that are most needed in the hospitals of our members. If these medicines were available, thousands of lives could be saved. We call on governments, industry, and our collective humanity to recognise that there is a way to provide cancer treatments and pain relief to LMICs and save lives.

Peter Kapitein, founder of Inspire2Live, said, ‘We have the assistance of international organizations, global expertise and our feet firmly on the ground in so many countries in every continent. We are human. By nature, we should also be humane. Why shouldn’t we save lives?’
2

Notes for Editor:
Inspire2Live (I2L) is the patient’s voice in cancer. The organisation creates more options for a life of
quality around cancer globally, faster. They connect patients, physicians, researchers, government,
insurance companies and the industry to initiate and develop projects for the benefit of the patient.
https://inspire2live.org

Reference Notes:

1. Argentina

Armenia

We have 30 LMIC country members:

Brazil

Bulgaria

Caribbean (consists of 16 countries)

Chile

Indonesia

Iran

Jordan

Kenya

Lebanon

Lithuania

Costa Rica

Croatia

Nigeria

Pakistan

Cuba

Philippines

Egypt

Gabon

Romania

Senegal

Ghana

South Africa

Guinea

Tanzania

Hungaria

India

Ukraine

Uzbekistan

2. PEPFAR President’s Emergency Plan for AIDA Relief

Among the organisations we consult:

3. The Pharmaceutical Accountability Foundation (PAF) serves the public interest by striving

to ensure that medicines and medical technologies are made available in a socially

responsible and sustainable manner. We attach a value to fair pricing and distribution in

accordance with European and international legal standards, and therefore take action to

combat unjustifiable price gouging by companies abusing market monopolies. We seek to

achieve our objectives through the provision of advice and information to governments,

stakeholders professionals and the general public. If that does not help, we achieve our

objectives through the possible legal action around excessively high priced medicines. Our

Articles of Association (in Dutch) can be found here.

Contact information for Media Enquiries:

Peter Kapitein, Founder of Inspire2Live

Email: peter.kapitein@inspire2live.org

Phone number: +31 6 52 49 60 99

4 

New prostate cancer tests

Less Grey Imaging

I'm signed up to Prostate Cancer Research and they produce a great magazine with the latest research often funded by donations to them. At the moment the PSA remains the best test despite it's unreliability, however a couple of things stood out in the recent issue:

'Less Grey Imaging'; as we know the PSA test is not reliable. MRI misses 20% of cancers and a whopping six in ten men undergo unnecessary procedures. This new technology offers us up to a 20-fold increase in resolution compared to mpMRI, which provides a grey, difficult-to-read image.

It works by injecting a commonly used contrast agent into a vein that contains millions of tiny and harmless microbubbles that travel through the patient’s bloodstream to the prostate. Super resolution ultrasound imaging is then used to track these microbubbles as they flow inside the prostate. Due to the altered blood flow in cancerous tissue, the image highlights previously unseen tumours, enabling earlier diagnosis. 94% of tumours are correctly identified and the technology is cheaper, faster and less claustrophobic than  an MRI scan. It is now going to a Phase II trial to take it forward. It cannot come soon enough! 

See more including a short video re Less Grey Imaging here. You can support research into this here.

New 'Spit test'; earlier this year researchers from The Institute of Cancer Research in London made headlines by announcing that their at-home spit test could spot which men are most at risk of prostate cancer. The test doesn't look for signs of prostate cancer in the body but rather looks at changes to a man's DNA that increase risks of prostate cancer.  The test is not commercially available yet but is now going to a large £42m trial to see if this genetic approach works at scale.

PSE test: a couple of years ago the University of East Anglia announced their PSE test was 92% accurate at detecting the disease. The test is a combination of the existing PSA blood test and another blood test they developed in collaboration with Oxford Biodynamics, called the EpiSwitch test. This looks at how DNA is folded in specific immune cells which might provide tell-tale signs of prostate cancer developing in the body. The combination, which they called the Prostate Screening EpiSwitch test (PSE test). It correctly identified men who didn't have prostate cancer 94% of the time.

Urine test; another recent development is a new urine test that measures 18 genes associated with prostate cancer. It provides higher accuracy for detecting clinically significant cancers than PSA and other existing biomarker tests, according to a study published last year in JAMA Oncology.  This means less unnecessary invasive biopsies.

There are various other tests being developed including one using AI to look at 100 biological markers in blood and urine samples, but as Prostate Cancer UK caution “many of these tests are still very early in their development and require robust testing”. 

An answer to rising costs and chronic illness

Our health services are at and in many places beyond breaking point. While we can hope the new government will restore some of the funding it is clear that health needs and costs are continuing to rise. In the next 15 years those living with a major illness are forecast to rise by 2.5 million to 9.1 million (i). 

So what can tackle rising costs and massively rising ill-health?

In this blog I will look at part of the answer that is already being tried with some wonderful results in terms of cutting costs and improved health outcomes. Perhaps the best articulation of the approach is the book “The Community Cure. Transforming Health Outcomes Together” by James Maskell (ii).

Maskell notes that we are facing a profound and worsening epidemic of loneliness and this is exacerbating chronic disease. He cites many examples of isolation as a social determinant of health including a 2017 questionnaire-based study where Medicare recipients older than 50, who ultimately were defined as “lonely”, experienced death rates 31% higher than their peers who did not self-identify as socially isolated. 

This research is not new - there is loads showing a range of health conditions associated with loneliness and social isolation, including heart disease and stroke, type 2 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis and cancer. Even recovery following heart surgery can be compromised by isolation.

In the book Maskell argues that to counter this we should turn to group medical appointments; a supportive community provides the space to help develop healthy behaviors - a key to reversing chronic illness. This also can ‘shift our collective focus to prevention and root cause resolution’.

The book looks at the many ways group medical visits are being used - and the powerful evidence of them as a treatment for the loneliness epidemic. 

One of the examples Maskell looks at is the work of Dr Jeffrey Geller’s. This doctor found that patients who lacked support systems accessed medical care at a greater rate, so he decided to create a support system by forming group visits with a cohort of diabetes patients. Geller notes “People’s loneliness improved, people’s depression improved, they lost weight … blood pressure reduced by 5-10 points, and hemoglobin A1C also reduced”. 

I’ve personally seen the benefits of a group of people coming together and supporting each other - the peer-led Wigwam cancer support groups are a great example. See my blog post on this; ‘What makes the biggest difference to our healing’: https://yestolife.org.uk/what-can-make-the-biggest-difference-to-our-healing/

I’ve also seen benefits accruing from groups like the Cancer Exercise group at Stratford Park Leisure Centre supported by Stroud District Council. I believe there is huge potential for more of this intentional coming together.

One obvious possibility might be the one-off prehab talk now being run by local cancer services. Could that be expanded into a series of group activities looking more at nutrition, exercise, sleep, stress and more? This of course doesn’t mean there will not be some individual appointments but the bulk of issues can be raised in the groups. One of the findings into researching this approach showed that folk didn’t have time to raise key stuff in an individual appointment but there was time in the groups. Furthermore some patients were more shy to raise issues and found it useful that others in the group asked those questions.

‘Confidentiality’ I hear some folks cry. Yes any group work needs to consider this issue, Maskell has a section in his book on this, but it seems clear to me that group visits don’t destroy a patients privacy. What they do offer is a safe space for folks to be vulnerable and this can be a key part in healing.

Maskell writes: “We need more connection, more empathy, more social connectivity, and less loneliness, less social isolation. In a culture and society that emphases and prioritises privacy, we’ve inadvertently contributing to the very epidemic we’re trying to solve."

Maskell provides many resources for those interested in starting their own group visits, primarily through his website, “Evolution of Medicine.” I also know there are many skilled practitioners within our NHS who no doubt already have the skills to develop this approach.

With families and communities no longer meeting our needs we have seen what Maskell calls ‘total commodification’. We need ever more money to pay for counselling, babysitters, care and more - these were once shared by the community itself. It seems we now only look to the market or government for solutions. It’s time for a refocus…..group appointments are a way whose time has come. It would be great to see if there are opportunities to expand these ideas in Gloucestershire?

Update 10.01.25: Just heard this useful podcast re James Maskell: https://creators.spotify.com/pod/show/robin-daly6/episodes/James-Maskell--Diana-Lindsay-e2sjofc

There are many other podcasts with James Maskell on his website and online. Here are a couple:

Dr Chatterjee interview: https://drchatterjee.com/the-secret-to-radically-improving-your-health-that-nobodys-talking-about-with-james-maskell/

Oncologist Nasha Winter's interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJanBC_xi3o&t=1s

Here are a couple more of my blogs looking at the impact of social support and community:

See blog about building a community of Wigwam Cancer Support Groups:

https://myunexpectedguide.blogspot.com/2021/05/building-community-of-peer-led-support.html

See blog on social prescribing and anti-social prescribing: 

https://myunexpectedguide.blogspot.com/2019/12/social-prescribing-for-people-living.html

Notes:

1. https://www.health.org.uk/reports-and-analysis/reports/health-in-2040-projected-patterns-of-illness-in-england
2. https://thecommunitycure.com/getyourcopy

Change NHS: a look at submissions

In November 2024 the UK public were invited by Health & Social Care Secretary, Wes Streeting, to contribute ideas to rescue the NHS; “Our NHS is broken, but not beaten. Together we can fix it.” See details here: https://change.nhs.uk/en-GB/

Amazingly the previous government left Cancer care out of its 10-year plan altogether. Given the scale of the current statistics this was surely deeply misjudged. In this blog I cover the excellent response by Yes to Life and note some other key points.

Robin Daly, Founder and Chair of Yes to Life, writes: "This was the introduction to Change NHS, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to have our say, that we at Yes to Life immediately knew we had to respond to. Although there are no certainties as to what effect this unprecedented public input will have, we felt the need to express clearly the changes we would like to see, and to argue the case that these will provide solutions to many of the key ills affecting UK healthcare in the twenty-first century".

Yes to Life have now made their submission public. It relates strongly to the Charter for Oncology that Yes to Life published earlier this year. This Charter sets out "the ethos for an entirely new relationship between those delivering and those in need of healthcare, one that opens up unlimited potential for rapid improvements in resources, methods and most importantly results, as well as approaches to prevention and health promotion that are currently totally absent from mainstream healthcare".

Don't forget to sign the petition for the Charter: https://www.change.org/p/implement-the-yes-to-life-charter-for-oncology-in-all-nhs-cancer-units

The Yes to Life submission by Robin Daly and Dr Penny Kechagioglou, NHS Oncologist and Lead Advisor to Yes to Life on Integrative Oncology, can be read at: https://yestolife.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Change-NHS-Booklet-1.pdf

The Charter is a key element of the submission but also there are other key points that they make in more detail than I note here - these include:

- The need for a deep cultural shift towards patient-centred care (not lip service) - it has been enshrined in the NHS Charter but is still barely discernible. Similarly we need a return to clinical judgement as a key element of evidence-based decisions.

- Integrative Oncology as a model of care is well developed in other countries, cost-effective and has better clinical outcomes; lifestyle changes are key yet the NHS is ill-equipped to deliver

- Prevention is ultimately where solutions lie

- More collaboration both within the NHS and with external providers

- More than half of Cancer patients adopt lifestyle or complementary approaches independently but are unsupported during and after treatment. Clinicians don't need to be experts but do need to know facts when it comes to its potential. Training key to help with changes.

- Improvements to data

The Patients Association

Many organisations and individuals are submitting responses  to Change NHS. One of the others I've read is by the Patients Association - see here. Their submission also strongly calls for the patient voice to be heard. It is full of detail and is informed by 290 responses to a call they made for comments. They found that the respondents to their survey were generally in favour of the three shifts proposed by the Government – shifting from hospitals to the community; from analogue to digital; and from sickness to prevention. There was also an understanding about the challenges that may arise from implementing these shifts. 

Among the key points are calls for shorter waiting times, integrated digital health records, better prevention strategies, and equitable care for underserved groups. Workforce recruitment and retention, alongside stronger patient partnerships, were also seen as critical to success.

One key issues that impacts on the NHS that needs emphasising is around how social determinants of health impact patients. This includes external factors that contribute to a patient’s health and wellbeing, like their income level, if they have access to safe housing, and whether they come from a minoritised community, like being Black or LGBTQ+. This is huge and something this blog has touched on in the past. Again as we've argued in the past part of the answers involve really involving patients.

Lastly here's a link to World Cancer Research Funds submission which also has some good stuff: https://www.wcrf.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Comments-10-year-health-plan-England-Dec-2024.pdf