The Christie Charity
If you take hormone medication such as abiraterone, apalutamide, darolutamide or enzalutamide for prostate cancer, your clinical team will monitor you during treatment using a service called MyChristieMyHealth.
Hormone therapy for prostate cancer
Hormone therapy is an effective treatment for keeping prostate cancer under control. While most patients tolerate treatment well, patients can experience side effects such as tiredness, diarrhoea, hot flushes, or high blood pressure. Carefully monitoring symptoms and side effects is an important part of your care.
MyChristie-MyHealth
MyChristie-MyHealth is an online service involving confidential online questionnaires, which you can complete securely from home on your smartphone, tablet, or computer at a time that suits you. The questionnaires ask about your symptoms, physical health, and quality of life. After you complete the questionnaire, you will receive advice on how to manage your symptoms and, if necessary, who to contact for support.
By using MyChristie-MyHealth, your clinical team will be able to:
- Monitor your symptoms closely
- Provide focused consultations tailored to your care and needs
- Understand better what matters most to you
Monitoring patients on hormone therapy using MyChristie-MyHealth
Once you start taking hormone therapy, your clinical team will monitor you closely, using MyChristieMyHealth questionnaires and blood tests every 3 months.
- During the 2 weeks before each review, you should have a blood test. You can attend blood test clinics at The Christie or book a blood test service at a location closer to where you live. You can contact the Bloods closer to home service on 0161 918 7654 (Monday to Friday, 8am – 4pm).
- Between clinic appointments, you should measure your blood pressure weekly and keep a record of this.
- 5 days before each review, you will receive a text message or email inviting you to complete an online questionnaire regarding your symptoms, blood pressure levels and how much medication you have left.
- Your clinical team will review your response on the day of your review.
- If they are concerned about your symptoms, blood pressure or blood tests, they will call you to discuss this and arrange support.
- If there are no concerns, or if there are non-urgent medical symptoms that can be best managed by your GP, they will send a text message with the results of your prostate specific antigen (PSA) blood test and book another review for you in 3 months.
How to get involved
- You are automatically enrolled on this service. You will receive a link to the online questionnaire by text message. If you prefer the link to be sent by email, please give your email address to your clinical team.
- You can opt-out from this service if you prefer. This will not affect your care in any way. Your clinical team will call you on the day of review to assess your symptoms and side effects. You should still measure your blood pressure and have a blood test before the review.
How to access support
- If you do not have a smartphone / internet access or have any issues with the online questionnaires, contact MyChristie-MyHealth on 0161 446 8606 (Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm). They will help you complete the questionnaire.
- If you are concerned about your health and / or need urgent advice, do not contact MyChristieMyHealth. Instead, contact The Christie Hotline immediately on 0161 446 3658 (24 hours a day, 7 days a week).