Urology cancer

A light blue outline of a set of kidneys. This is the departmental icon for urology Urology cancers include any malignant tumours involving prostate, bladder, kidneys, ureter, testicle or penis. The combination of these various cancers involves a large workforce across all hospitals within our Trust. Some of these cancers are quite rare but all tumours will require a multidisciplinary approach and may involve referral and treatment away from your local hospital.

To find out more about each type of cancer, visit:

Prostate cancer – https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/prostate-cancer
Bladder cancer – https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/bladder-cancer
Kidney cancer – https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/kidney-cancer
Testicular cancer – https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/testicular-cancer
Penile cancer – https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/penile-cancer

Investigations that we offer

Availability of services across Mid and South Essex depend on the area of suspicion for cancer. Below are highlighted some of the common investigations that may be needed for each cancer site:

Prostate - Blood tests, MRI scan, CT scan, bone scan, PSMA PET scan, biopsies.
Bladder - Blood tests, MRI scan, CT scan, FDG PET scan, flexible cystoscopy, general anaesthetic cystoscopy and biopsies.
Kidneys - Blood tests, MRI scan, CT scan, FDG PET scan, ultrasound scan, general anaesthetic ureteroscopy, CT/ ultrasound guided biopsies.
Ureter - Blood tests, MRI scan, CT scan, FDG PET scan, ultrasound scan, general anaesthetic ureteroscopy and biopsies.
Testicle -Blood tests, MRI scan, CT scan, ultrasound scan
Penis - Blood tests, MRI scan, CT scan performed locally however due to its rarity penile cancers are normally always referred to St Georges general Hospital in London.

Treatments for each cancer can vary and may need surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, or a combination of these treatments.

If you have any questions about treatment or investigations for any of these cancer sites then please contact the site-specific clinical nurse specialist (CNS) team local to you for more information.

Pelvic radiation disease service

Patients who have had pelvic radiotherapy to treat certain cancers can suffer side effects to the bowel, bladder and sexual organs. Symptoms may vary from person to person but could include:

needing to go to the toilet more (bowels and/or passing urine)
mucus or blood from the back passage
tiredness
difficulty in having sexual intercourse
leaking urine or blood in your urine.

Side effects caused by pelvic radiotherapy is called pelvic radiation disease (PRD). Pelvic radiation disease can:

affect you during or shortly after treatment and last longer than 3 months.
begin months or even years after treatment.
be quite significant in making day-to-day life difficult.

Meet the teams

Following your investigations, if you have not already, you will be introduced to the wider Urology Oncology team. This will include:

Oncology consultants based on each site.
Urology consultants specialised in pelvic and renal surgery who work across all three sites but with specialist surgeries centralised to Southend and Broomfield.
Clinical nurse specialist teams are based on each site.
Designated enhanced recovery team at both Southend and Broomfield.

Prostate cancer end of treatment plan

As part of your recent end of treatment clinic appointment with one of our urology oncology clinical nurse specialists, you will have been informed about the end of treatment pack.

This pack is designed to support you to live a healthy and active life beyond your cancer diagnosis.

In the pack, you will find information about:

continued follow up care
a list of NHS approved websites to aid further reading
information regarding our support groups and their contact details
hints and tips on subjects such as urinary issues
Macmillan services and courses.

Visit https://app.mystaffapp.org/9257/document_view.pdf to access the End of Treatment pack.

Urology consultants

To view a list of our specialist consultants in this area, visit Consultants - Urology. For other consultants that work with urology, see:

Pelvic surgeons

Mr Hanif Motiwala
Mr Kunal Jadhav
Mr Mohamed Abd Alazeez
Mr Matteo Massanova
Mr Omer Abdalla
Mr Pavlos Pavlakis

Renal surgeons

Mr Anil Vohra
Mr Karan Wadhwa
Mr Kunal Jadhav
Mr Martin Nuttall
Mr Richard Chang
Mr Santbir Mehta

Useful links

Local Support Groups - your local urological cancer support group. Run by patients and family members where a diagnosis of prostate and other urological cancers have been made: