With prostate cancer awareness month having recently passed in the United States, those of us who were interested or concerned got evaluated or maybe even began treatments for prostate cancer.
The remainder, like most of us who were marginally interested, will forget all about prostate cancer and screening. We will go on with our lives, and get reminded again next year.
This is why events like Male Cancer Awareness Month, sponsored by the Cayman Island Cancer Society, are so important.
The problem is that prostate cancer has no symptoms early in the disease process and when it does present with symptoms it has usually spread.
Like most men, we will put our health care last after our family, our work, and most anything else we feel is more important. Unfortunately, this is when we begin to do a disservice to our family, our work, and to ourselves.
Screening for prostate cancer is easy. It requires a simple blood test and a rectal exam by your doctor.
Recently, the screening blood test or PSA test has become wrapped in controversy. The United States Preventive Services Task Force, a US government agency, stated the PSA test was a useless test and did not account for any increased survival to men.
They studied multiple men screened for and diagnosed with prostate cancer, over a period of many years to come up with this conclusion.
The American Urological Association responded quickly in continued support for the test, stating that although the test is a nonspecific test for diagnosis alone, it is very helpful in helping make a diagnosis. I will also assume that all the men on that committee that came to this conclusion, all had their PSA test done.
As a practising urologist, I see men who are unaware of prostate cancer, or unaware that they might possibly be at increased risk because of family history, lifestyle or diet. The reason they are referred to me is because their primary care physician thought the PSA test was useful enough to draw, along with other blood tests, or because the patient had an abnormal rectal exam.
The likelihood that we will be affected or diagnosed with prostate cancer is one in three men, with the rate increasing with advanced age.
For the most part, prostate cancer has no symptoms. It is not the man that wakes up three or four times a night. It is not the man that has to stand there and wait to pass his urine. These are all signs of an enlargement of the prostate that comes as we get older.
These signs can be in conjunction with prostate cancer, but that diagnosis is made by your doctor.
Prostate cancer can be deadly or it can be very treatable. It can be readily screened for and easily diagnosed.
It just takes a little planning and a realisation that if I do get diagnosed and it’s early, I can continue to do the same things that are important, like take care of my family and do my job.
If, however, a routine check up with screening continually gets put off, it won’t be until next year when Male Cancer Awareness Month comes again and the same argument is made. If, after reading this article, or listening to my talk just one person finds it important enough to get a screening blood test, then they will find that it was worthwhile.
Dr. Mark H. Christ is a Board-Certified Urologist and Medical Director of UROMEDIX in Aventura, Florida and is a recognised specialist in prostate cancer, urinary incontinence and erectile dysfunction. The Cayman Islands Cancer Society has invited Dr. Christ to be the keynote speaker at the MOvember presentation on prostrate cancer on Thursday, 17 November at the Lions Centre at 7pm. Men are invited to attend to learn more and get a free PSA blood test done.
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