Prostate cancer does not often present with symptoms, especially when found early, so the best chance of catching it in its most treatable stage is by getting screened.
Prostate Cancer Screening
“It literally saves lives,” Jim says. “Men are dying needlessly for want of a simple test and the discomfort of a finger. We should be testing men annually and men have to be their own advocates.”
Charles was already advocating for prostate cancer screening and supporting MANUP before his own diagnosis, but his efforts have been redoubled since his treatment and recovery.
Prostate cancer is the most common cancer among men. About one in every eight people assigned male at birth will receive a prostate cancer diagnosis during their lifetime. Most people who are diagnosed will not die from it, and many people with prostates can safely choose active surveillance instead of immediate treatment.
"Most men don’t realize that if your PSA number doubles from one year to the next, you’re in trouble. We want to express that to men, to take advantage of the situation and be educated.”
"Men need to know that they’re in the driver’s seat. Going to see your doctor doesn’t mean they’re going to operate on you; it’s just going to see a doctor, so you know what your PSA numbers are."
“They’ll say, ‘When it gets bad, then you can see me.’ But when it gets bad, what decision will you make? What treatment will you get?”
“We’re reminding people to get their mammograms, their colorectal screenings and, for men, their prostate screenings.”
One in eight men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer at some point in his life, but not all men with the disease will need to be treated for their illness.
With the popularity of mail-away DNA tests and ancestry reports, people are learning more about what makes them who they are. Learning about your family history can be exciting, but this trend also has people curious about the health risks they may have inherited through family genetics.
You ask the internet a lot of questions, and Roswell Park has some answers. James Mohler, MD, Professor of Oncology, and Chair of the NCCN Prostate Cancer Guideline Committee, and Eric Kauffman, MD, Assistant Professor of Oncology, sat down to answer some of the internet's most-searched-for questions related to prostate cancer.
Recognizing signs and symptoms of illness is always a good idea, but when it comes to cancer, and especially prostate cancer, symptoms are often vague, difficult to discern from normal, or don’t appear at all until the cancer advances.