September is Prostate Cancer Awareness Month, a chance to focus the nation’s attention on the most common non-skin cancer diagnosed in men in the U.S., according to the National Cancer Institute. The NCI’s Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results Program estimates that more than 299,010 American men will receive a diagnosis of prostate cancer in 2024, and that almost 13 percent of men will be diagnosed at some point in their lifetime.
Prostate cancer also is the country’s second leading cause of cancer deaths in men after lung cancer, with 35,250 men projected to die of the disease this year. Thankfully screening options, which include a digital rectal exam and a blood test for prostate-specific antigen or PSA, have proven extremely effective in catching the disease before it spreads leading to a five-year survival rate of 97.5 percent. (Read more in the Healthbeat column on Page 17.)
The prostate is a gland in the male reproductive system located just below the bladder and in front of the rectum. It’s about the size of a walnut and surrounds part of the urethra, which is the tube that empties urine from the bladder. The prostate gland produces fluid that makes up part of semen.
In almost all cases of prostate cancer, malignant cells form in the tissues of the prostate. Prostate cancer often has no early symptoms. Advanced prostate cancer can cause men to urinate more often or have a weaker flow of urine.
The incidence of prostate cancer increases in men over 50 years of age, and those with a family history of the disease are at greater risk. It occurs more often in African-American men than in White men. Trials have found that increasing one’s intake of Vitamin E and folic acid can elevate the risk of prostate cancer, but that a diet containing adequate levels of folate — a kind of vitamin B found in green vegetables, beans and orange juice — can lower the risk.
President Joe Biden, in his proclamation of National Prostate Cancer Awareness Month, underscored the importance of early detection and screening.
“Experts recommend that men — especially those at high risk for cancer — discuss screening for prostate cancer with their doctors. This month and every month, let us come together and recommit to finally ending cancer as we know it — for all the lives we have tragically lost and the lives we can still save,” he stated.
Those diagnosed with prostate cancer can learn the latest information from top Chicago-area physicians at Hot Topics in Prostate Cancer Saturday, Sept. 28, at Wellness House (see Page 18 for details).
In April of this year, Francis Collins, former director of the National Institutes of Health, revealed his prostate cancer diagnosis in an essay published by The Washington Post. Collins wanted his experience to help reduce the stigma around the disease.
“Why am I going public about this cancer that many men are uncomfortable talking about?” Collins wrote. “Because I want to lift the veil and share lifesaving information, and I want all men to benefit from the medical research to which I’ve devoted my career and that is now guiding my care.”
