Thanks to regular checks with his doctor, Richard Lagden has been able to access effective treatment early in his prostate cancer journey after being diagnosed last year.  

“I’ve been having prostate specific antigen (PSA) blood tests every year for quite a few years and the last one I had last year was much higher than the previous ones, so my doctor referred me onto an oncologist who started all this treatment.

Richard is the first Tasmanian public prostate cancer patient treated using Stereotactic Ablative Body Radiation Therapy (SABR) – an advanced treatment technique that delivers high doses of radiation to a small, focused area which significantly cuts down the treatment time. 

“Treatment has finished, I had all that done over the last two weeks, and I’ve had virtually no side effects from it and the treatment itself is really easy and painless for the patient – the medical team is very happy with the results so far,” Richard said. 

Prostate SABR is currently delivered by the two linear accelerators at the Royal Hobart Hospital and reduces the number of treatments for suitable patients from 20 treatments over four weeks down to five treatments delivered over two weeks, saving significant time, reducing stress, and inconvenience for patients and their families or loved ones.

SABR was initially introduced to the Royal Hobart Hospital in 2014 to treat localised bone metastases, and over the past 10 years the program has expanded to include lung, brain and lymph nodes. Patients with intermediate risk prostate cancer are the latest group to benefit from this highly effective treatment technique with aims to expand the program to high-risk patients in the future.

Richard had no symptoms of prostate cancer which is very common in the early stages – advanced prostate cancer symptoms can include:

• Frequent urination
• Pain while urinating
• Blood in urine or semen
• A weak urine stream
• Pain in the back or pelvis
• Weak legs or feet
• More widespread disease often spreads to the bones and causes pain or unexplained weight loss and fatigue

Radiation Oncologist at the Royal Hobart Hospital, Associate Professor Marketa Skala, said that 1 in 8 Australian men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during their lifetime. 

“Prostate cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in Australian men, often there are no warning signs.

“It’s important to release that not all prostate cancer needs treatment, some of the low-risk prostate cancers we can just observe using acting surveillance or watchful waiting protocol however men who require definitive treatment will have a choice between surgery or radiation therapy. 

“The recommendation is that men over the age of 50 have an annual PSA which is a screening blood test and if there is a family history of prostate cancer then men should start screening at 40 years of age,” Associate Professor Marketa Skala. 

“Even if you have no signs of prostate cancer or what you’d consider the normal signs, you should still go ahead and get checked every year,” Richard said. 

For more information on prostate cancer and treatment options, visit: 

• Prostate cancer | Tasmanian Department of Health
• Prostate cancer | Causes, Symptoms & Treatments | Cancer Council