Harry: Well what often happens is that the cancer spreads and it commonly spreads to the lymph nodes in the first instance. So when they did the operation they may have seen something there. One obviously doesn't want to do an extensive operation because the more extensive the operation, the more likely you are to get complications and so on. But presumably when they had a look they may have seen nodes that seemed suspicious. So they removed those nodes.

Coral: In actual fact they didn't end up removing the nodes. Subsequent to that we've had six months of pain, frustration and going backwards and forwards to doctors. We now know that he's got an infection of the lymph nodes. He's been bombarded with Flagyl (sp) and other things.

Harry: Yes, so they've given him antibiotics. In other words, they didn't think that the lymph nodes were cancerous but they thought he had an infection so they gave him antibiotics. Or perhaps they weren't even sure.

Coral: They weren't sure.

Harry: Therefore they're using the antibiotics to see if this would help to make the diagnosis. Because if the lymph nodes disappear on the antibiotics they can say that there was a good chance that it was an infection. But if they don't disappear then they may well be cancerous.

Coral: Well then we're looking at a lymph adenectomy.

Harry: Before you look any further you need to discuss very, very carefully whether you should do any further surgery at all. Let's just assume that it has spread to the glands. Then I must be honest with you - it may even have spread beyond those glands to other parts of the body or to the bones.

Coral: Well at this point it's not cancer, it's just a very, very bad bacterial infection.

Harry: By all means, have the antibiotics and see what that does. If there is no response and he continues to have pain and the glands continue to be visualised, then clearly you've got to go and look for evidence of a further spread.

Coral: This lymph adenectomy is quite a big op, I believe.

Harry: Please don't talk about any further operations at this stage. The first thing is to make a diagnosis. See what the antibiotics do and only if there's no response can you even begin to consider an operation. Because you're talking about further extensive surgery and you've got to be very careful before you consider that because there are other options. The other options are radiotherapy and medical hormonal treatment. And those are much less invasive and much less dangerous options.

Coral: All right, thank you.