The survival rate of prostate cancer can be close to 100 per cent if it’s discovered early.
With one in seven men being diagnosed with the disease in his lifetime getting checked regularly is important to beating the disease.
The City of Dauphin declared September as Prostate Cancer Awareness Month during their last regular council meeting.
Patrick Feschuk who is in charge of special projects at the Manitoba Prostate Cancer Support Group shares how many cases are discovered a year.
“Prostate Cancer affects many, many men. In Manitoba usually, in a year, you get about 700 cases that are men who are diagnosed with prostate cancer. Like all cancers, it’s important that you get cancer in its early stages. So we encourage men to get checked for prostate cancer as early as possible.”
“Get their PSA checked, get a bench level established when they are 40. And then watch it when you go for your annual checkup to your doctor, ask them to get your PSA. It’s just another part of the blood test, and you just watch that. if it starts increasing, if it doubles, or if there is an increase that the doctor thinks might be reason to explore further then they will do other tests to determine if you have prostate cancer or not.”
Like most cancers, if it’s caught early, it’s treatable, and you can live a healthy life after.
It’s estimated that 11 men will die from prostate cancer every day in Canada.
