Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber has been diagnosed with early stage prostate cancer, his spokeswoman from the PR firm Brown Lloyd James. Webber is the British composer of numerous musicals, including “Cats,” “Phantom of the Opera,” the glorification of Nazi sympathizers in “Evita,” and everyone’s favorite snorer “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat,”
All the more shocking was the revelation that Andrew Lloyd Webber is actually being treated for his prostate cancer. Gasp! I can only imagine that the medical community is completely upset at Sir Webber’s refusal to engage in the treatment du jour: “watchful waiting.”
Here’s my feeling on “watchful waiting” for prostate cancer. Watchful waiting is gambling with your life. Sure, watchful waiting helps the NHS and Medicare in the U.S. save money, but you’re gambling your prostate cancer won’t metastasize and kill you. Is helping the government save money potentially worth your life?
Medically, I think Watchful Waiting has its place. But it is a limited place. Patients need to understand both the benefits and the risks of Watchful Waiting and they need to be given the choice to engage in Watchful Waiting…or in receiving treatment. That Prostate Cancer still kills over 30,000 men every year is a tragegy.
I’m not willing to tolerate 30,000 dead men in the U.S. (and another 10,000 in the UK) as acceptable collateral damage in the government’s cost control scheme.
