Sir Chris Hoy, the Olympic cycling champion diagnosed with stage four prostate cancer in 2023, has provided a health update, saying he is “hanging in there” while hopeful that AI-driven treatments and new trial drugs could prolong his life.
Sir Chris Hoy has shared a health update(Image: Sam Mellish, Getty Images)
Sir Chris Hoy has shared an update on his health almost three years after receiving his stage four prostate cancer diagnosis.
The 50-year-old six-time Olympic gold medallist was tragically warned by doctors he had four years to live when he revealed his devastating diagnosis in September 2023. Should that prognosis prove correct, it would mean the celebrated cyclist tragically has fewer than 18 months remaining.
Nevertheless, in his most recent update, one of Britain’s greatest ever Olympians said he was trying to “hang in there” for as long as possible until new treatments became available that could extend his life.
Sir Chris is hopeful that AI could play a role in developing new medicines. He explained: “It’s going relatively well and I’m just kind of cracking on with life…. You’ve got to find a way to enjoy the moment and enjoy the day but also put faith in the people that are doing all these incredible things.
“There could be an amazing treatment just around the corner if you can hang in there. There are a lot of issues with AI in the future and we have got to manage it well, but one of the real positives of AI has to be in the field of medicine and the rate at which we can develop and optimise new drugs for treatment in the future.”
Sir Chris Hoy(Image: BBC)
Sir Chris also spoke on his podcast Sporting Misadventures about how advances in immunotherapy treatments had given him encouragement, highlighting its ability to target cancer cells directly without causing harm to the surrounding healthy tissue.
However, he acknowledged that immunotherapy had not been an option for him owing to the specific type of cancer he has.
He went on to say: “There is a new trial drug which may well have cracked it and it should be available relatively soon. By all accounts it’s having remarkable success in terms of the number of patients in the trial who responded well to it.”
Sir Chris Hoy(Image: Angel Martinez, Getty Images for Laureus)
Sir Chris’ update comes just a few months after he launched a campaign to raise awareness of the condition, launching a screening campaign with rugby player Kenny Logan earlier this year.
The aim of the campaign was to motivate men to register and undergo scanning so that potential cases of the cancer could be identified at an earlier stage. In response, around 6,000 men signed up to the Scottish Prostate Cancer Initiative within seven days.
Speaking at the time about the impact of prostate cancer on him, Sir Chris said: “A stage four diagnosis changes your life drastically but I guess it’s finding a new purpose, and today’s event is all about trying to educate men about the importance of catching prostate cancer early. Early detection saves lives – that is the message to take away from today.”