Hitting the trifecta

Got a text from my youngest brother last night that he's now diagnosed with PCa and will have surgery in January. So, I was diagnosed at 54; first brother at 50; second brother at 49.
I am now out of brothers. Someone else will have to carry the load.
For the record, my father was diagnosed at 52.

I'm thinking that genetics may have a part to play in this. I fooled them, however, I only have daughters.

STW said... I'm thinking that genetics may have a part to play in this. I fooled them, however, I only have daughters. Science-based analysis tells us that "genetics" has far less to do with PC than you might believe from the very common, emotional, yet anecdotal, set of circumstances you have recently experienced.   It has already been shown that  only a small percentage of all PC cases are hereditary ; that is, from a gene flaw passed from one generation to the other.  On a population basis, it only affects about 5% of all current PC cases .   A genetic test for PC is nearly worthless.   Why, then, do they say, then, that PC runs in families?  To understand this, first, be sure to acknowledge that prostate cancer is a nearly ubiquitous part of aging in the US.   Beyond that, there are two significant reasons why many folks associate PC occurrences with family ties.   There definitely is a recognized statistical correlation in each of these factors, but correlation is not causation .   1) One’s diet and lifestyle choices tend to be rooted in the early childhood exposures which becomes a baseline for future habits.   You and your brothers ate a lot of the same foods growing up, and probably took many, or at least some of those food favorites into your adulthood.   There are many foods recognized as cancer “feeders” (as opposed to cancer “fighters”) such as (but not limited to) red meats and diary which over decades may  elevate one’s personal risk for PC .   In general, one’s lifestyle choices often (not always) mimic their family’s.   2)  Once a case of PC shows up in a family, there tends to be increased diagnostic activity .   If your father/brother has or had PC,  then you are more likely to be screened …and (again) PC is such a prevalent and natural part of aging, if you get screened as you get older (especially in this age of being diagnosing extremely small cell “abnormalities”), then you are increasingly likely to find PC (although most likely indolent PC).   With sons or daughters, the best thing we can do to help reduce their risk of cancer—many different types of cancer—is to encourage them to adopt controllable cancer-fighting behaviors:   primary among those is to avoid a sedentary lifestyle, and eat a mostly plant-based diet.