How to Beat the Odds of the Second Leading Cause of Cancer Death in Men
Prostate Cancer Awareness Week (PCAW) will be held September 18 – 23, and will potentially save the lives of the men in our country. With more than 500 screening sites, there is no good excuse for men 35 and older (should they be African-American, who are at a higher risk than Caucasians, or have a family history of the disease) and all men over 40 to get checked.
Greenwood Village, Colo. (PRWEB) September 10, 2006
As the second leading cause of cancer death in American men, more than 230,000 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer this year. With more annual cases of prostate cancer than that of breast cancer among women, it is imperative that men get checked annually just as their female counterparts do.
In order to help save men’s lives, the non-profit Prostate Cancer Education Council (PCEC) was created in 1989 with a mission to get men checked. The PCEC is founded on the fact that prostate cancer is nearly 100 percent survivable if caught in its earliest stages. That is why every third week in September, they have coordinated free or low-cost screenings for millions of men across the United States.
Prostate Cancer Awareness Week (PCAW) will be held September 18 – 23, and will potentially save the lives of the men in our country. With more than 500 screening sites, there is no good excuse for men 35 and older (should they be African-American, who are at a higher risk than Caucasians, or have a family history of the disease) and all men over 40 to get checked.
As it is becoming better known that catching diseases in their early stages offer the best chances for survival, so is the fact that overall health awareness is essential to our well being. There are many factors that play into a man’s risk for prostate cancer, such as obesity and diet, as well as many questions related to the occurrence of prostate cancer and treatment options.
With all these factors playing into a man’s understanding of prostate cancer, which will take the lives of 30,000 men in 2006, PCEC has dedicated each day of PCAW to a topic relating to the disease. The days are:
Monday, Sept. 18 – General Prostate Cancer Awareness Day
Tuesday, Sept. 19 – Advanced Prostate Cancer Awareness Day
Wednesday, Sept. 20 – Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH) Awareness Day
Thursday, Sept. 21 – Women, Families & Caregivers Day
Friday, Sept. 22 – Know Your Numbers (Cholesterol, Testosterone, Obesity & Nutrition) Day
Saturday, Sept. 23 – New Horizons (Innovation, Research & Upcoming Treatment Options) Day
“If only men would take annual screening for prostate cancer as seriously as women do for breast cancer,” comments Dr. E. David Crawford, Head of the Urologic Oncology Department at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, and Founder/Chairman of the PCEC. “Every three minutes an American male discovers he has prostate cancer. This is a staggering statistic, but palatable when tempered with early diagnosis when the disease is at its most curable stage.”
Screenings during PCAW take about 10 minutes and include a Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) blood test and a Digital Rectal Exam (DRE) done by a trained professional.
To find a PCAW screening site near you and for more information on prostate cancer, please visit www. pcaw. com or call toll free 866-4PROST8.
About the Prostate Cancer Education Council
The Prostate Cancer Education Council (PCEC) was founded in 1988 and coordinates the national Prostate Cancer Awareness Week (PCAW) program, September 17 – 23, 2006. PCAW was created by the PCEC as a means to offer free or low-cost prostate cancer screenings across the nation (12 in Colorado, more than 500 nationwide). PCEC and the PCAW event strive to educate men and the women in their lives about the prevalence of prostate cancer, the importance of early detection and the available treatment options. In addition to coordinating PCAW, PCEC conducts the Prostate Awareness and Cancer Education (PACE) Race in major cities across the country and works with a number of NFL teams and player spokesmen in the Tackle Prostate Cancer campaign, dedicating a number of games throughout the season to prostate cancer awareness. As one of the oldest and largest organized screening efforts in the nation, PCAW has helped millions of men receive potentially life-saving screenings in addition to influencing additional research dollars to be earmarked for prostate cancer.
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