KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Prostate cancer is the most common form of cancer in men. Each year, more than 200,000 men are diagnosed.
Dr. J. Brantley Thrasher of the University of Kansas Hospital appeared on Wednesday’s FOX 4 Morning Show to talk about what men should be doing to be sure they don’t become a statistic.
Some facts about prostate cancer:
- Prostate cancer generally does not present itself with any symptoms until late in the disease process when it is locally advanced or has spread elsewhere in the body
- One in six men will be diagnosed with the disease in their lifetime
- Men at greater risk of being diagnosed are African American or those with a strong family history of prostate cancer, generally in a first degree relative
The new guideline on the Early Detection of Prostate Cancer published by the AUA recommends shared decision-making for men age between 55 and 69 years old that are considering PSA screening. This is primarily because the European Screening Trial showed a significant benefit to screening in this group of patients.
A discussion with your physician should also cover the PSA screening interval–it may not need to be every year but rather every other.
It is now recommended that men older than 70 years or any man with less than a 10 – 15 year life expectancy not undergo routine screening.
Remember that these recommendations only pertain to men with no symptoms pertaining to the prostate.
There is a lot more interest in this country to do active surveillance for men with low grade, low volume prostate cancer-avoiding treatment complications.
The University of Kansas Hospital has the Burns and McDonnell Prostate Cancer Prevention Clinic for high risk individuals. Those individuals have high PSAs but previous negative biopsies, strong family history or previous biopsies showing pre-malignant lesions.
