SEPTEMBER: Prostate Cancer Awareness Month!

Everyone who reads or posts here is already an ADVOCATE for prostate cancer support and awareness ...

The color for prostate cancer awareness is light, sky blue!

In whatever ways you can ... continue to reach out to other "brothers in the battle" ...

Encourage your brothers, nephews, sons, old college buddies, male neighbors, and male work colleagues to keep up with check-ups and medical appointments ...

We all have opportunities to serve as advocates ... in countless ways.

Advocacy takes many forms ...

Find your voice ... keep reaching out ... and remember the significance of sky blue!

We stand alongside each other here!

In fellowship ~
CYCLONE ~ # Iowa State University

Hello, Clocknut ~

Seems that prostate cancer doesn't generate the fanfare or loud drumbeats that it deserves ...

It's a COMMON form of cancer ... and the drumbeats of advocacy often seem muffled ... and faraway.

Continued RESEARCH and clinical trials are so key ...

That aside, here's to the support and encouragement and awareness shared here on this website!

As the old adage says, "It's better to light a candle than to curse the darkness."

Here's to that!

CYCLONE ~ # Iowa State University

Rockin@57 ~

Appreciative of your sentiments, and I echo your belief that the light blue pennant flags need to be flown from the castle turrets, as well!

I think so many people say, "Oh, prostate cancer! I think my uncle had that years ago, but I really don't know much about it."

We need a light blue spotlight ~ to help illuminate the cause ~ in the context of men's overall healthcare.

In fellowship,
CYCLONE ~ # Iowa State University

Matt, I agree, before my dealings, I knew nothing about PC. None of my doctors ever mentioned it. I had never had a PSA or Testosterone check. I had numerous DREs, but no doctor even explained why he was doing it, nor did I ask. I just thought it was part of a normal physical exam. I guess if you had someone in the family that had PC, you would be more aware. When a celebrity has PC you read about it, but after they get treatment it fades away. I know some celebrities advocate for prostate awareness, but it is not advertised on TV. Breast cancer, on the other hand, is much publicized. A prostate awareness month would be a great idea. I do go out of my way when talking to friends or even sometimes strangers, to ask if they have had a PSA check. The majority have said no. My best to all,
Jack

A full month dedicated exclusively to prostate cancer would be great, but instead we get included in a month which is apparently set aside for "any cancer not noted elsewhere". September is not only prostate cancer, but also childhood cancers (in general), leukemia and lymphoma, thyroid, ovarian and uterine cancers. Some sites combine the last two into "gynecological" cancers, but January is cervical cancer exclusively. Go figure.

June is "survivors" month, and I had one doctor tell me that the term survivor applies only to breast cancer survivors. While it's true that BC affects about one in 8 or 9 women, prostate cancer "only" affects one in every 8 or 9 men. One of the myriad of HR+/HER2- drug commercials on TV even mentions men, and YES, men do get breast cancer, even metastatic BC.

Speaking of which, I recently learned that breast cancer actually has TWO ribbons, traditional pink plus another greenish one with a pink stripe for metastatic BC. I guess other cancers don't metastasize. Here's a handy chart to keep up with all of this: https://www.choosehope.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/cancer_awareness_calendar-scaled.jpg

Some calendars assign August to appendix cancer, but not this one (a friend's wife died from AC). Intestinal (small bowel, not CRC) is not to be found anywhere, but neuroendocrine cancer is included (go Zebras!) Okay, I know I'm preaching to the choir. But hopefully someday "prostate cancer" will no longer be treated as a dirty word, or dismissed by society because it only affects men.

Cyclone, as you can see from a previous post of mine, I didn’t know that September was prostate awareness month. I even advocated that one month should be dedicated to it. To find out that that it is lumped into many others is disheartening. My daughter has kidney disease and I wear a shirt that states kidney awareness during March. In fact I wear it throughout the year. You say to wear a light blue shirt. Is there a shirt that has prostate awareness that I can purchase? If so I would be happy to wear it in September from now on. If not, I will wear my light blue shirt. I just wish everyone that I encounter knows what it means. Thanks as always for your great support to all of us.
Jack

A link to the billboard I mentioned earlier. We'll take any awareness we can get but I think they should have promoted PSA testing, especially awareness of hereditary risk. My son turns 40 this month and has his first PSA test scheduled.
https://www.standard.net/news/health-news/2022/sep/02/billboard-in-ogden-to-spotlight-dairys-cancer-risk-utah-doctor-says-its-complicated

Awareness is key. Immediately after I was diagnosed with PCa I reached out to male family and friends to implore them to get PSA tests if they already hadn’t done so. Shortly thereafter my uncle was tested and later diagnosed with PCa as was a very close friend of mine. They both caught it early and had successful surgeries. And I continue to spread the word. In fact, at a recent visit with my cardiologist, he told me that I inspired him at my previous visit to get his first PSA test. It is surprising to me that so many men are either unaware of testing or simply choose not to do it.

I've read that there are at least 100 types of cancer that affect the human body. Instead of separating cancer victims into various groups, sometimes competing with one another for attention, with observances in various months, would it not make sense to have just one "Cancer Awareness Month" to promote awareness of ALL types of cancer? Actually, promoting cancer awareness should take place all year long, but one month might be preferable to the way we're doing it now.

There is a descriptive phrase known as "orphan diseases" ~ rather rare, not well understood, and lacking the funding it would take for breakthroughs in research.

And we need breakthroughs for these little-understood diseases, as well!

I love when I read about a new life-changing medical breakthrough!

Here's to those strides FORWARD!

CYCLONE ~ # Iowa State University

Rockin@57 said...
... PC should receive as much attention as breast cancer IMO. Not knocking the attention breast cancer gets as my mother died from it two years ago. You regularly see pro athletes wearing pink during games for awareness. How about a little light blue!

Those have been my sentiments for the last three years. September is the beginning of regular season NCAAF and the NFL. This would be the perfect time to bring awareness to a situation that could be controlled. Some men MAY be diagnosed with breast cancer, but NO woman will EVER be diagnosed with prostate cancer.

mattam said...
Breast cancer screenings for women have been entrenched for decades. Prostate cancer screenings I think were getting strong traction in the decade of the 2000s. Then around 2012 the USPSTF stepped in to recommend reduced screening for PCa. So, that's where we are now. I don't think things will change any time soon, if ever.

A brief history for those who were not forced to live thru this, as Matt and I were (and surely many others here). The PSA blood test came into broad use around 1995, and many men were found to have an elevated PSA level. Naturally, greed stepped in and some urosurgeons took advantage of the situation and recommended surgery (RP) for some of these men who may have had a low grade/early stage case and probably would have lived normally without the RP for many years.

Then someone wrote an expose called "Invasion of the Prostate Snatchers" and there was much outrage. In typical knee jerk fashion, the bureaucrats created this USPSTF recommendation of 2012, which, in a vague manner, suggested that doctors should not do routine PSA screenings and that urologists should keep the existence of prostate cancer a secret. Okay, that wasn't the intent, but that's what happened. The result was that around 2015 and forward, more and more men presented with advanced metastatic prostate cancer. Some years later the recommendation was revised in an egg-on-the-face "clarification" that men and their doctors should do some sort of "shared decision making". IMO that hasn't helped much.

But one other fallout of this debacle was an army of "overtreatment" zealots invaded many online prostate groups and lambasted the poor PCa victims for having gone thru treatment... often multiple treatments, because they had fallen thru the cracks when patients weren't supposed to ask and doctors weren't supposed to tell. Some still lurk in the shadows. They profess "what you should have done" when they have no idea what we were going thru at the time.

That's been my experience anyway.

mattam said...
Interestingly, I believe the Task Force recommended for less screening for breast cancer too. The difference is, screenings for women was already part of the collective consciousness. And, I think women generally are more concerned about their health.

Breast cancer screening (i.e., mammogram) recommendations have gone up and down many times, yet there are still women who are denied routine scans by insurance and end up with metastatic BC. Of course, there is at least some risk from radiation, and many women complain about the discomfort of having their breasts squeezed between the plates. I could mention the discomfort of a DRE, but I guess women - some of them anyway, are accustomed to being poked in various orifices.

I didn't realize until this morning that I got a "two-fer" for September. Yes, it's Prostate Cancer Awareness Month, but it's also apparently Atrial Fibrillation (Afib) Awareness Month.
I've been "celebrating" by being in continuous atrial fibrillation from the first of the month until September 21st. I ended my "celebration" by getting cardioverted (electrical shock) Wednesday morning.
In spite of two catheter ablations and heart rhythm control meds, I've been unable to keep this monster at bay.
I see my electrophysiologist in a week to plan out a new strategy for dealing with the Afib.
I wonder if any of you other guys have had to deal with atrial fibrillation It's damned annoying!