Prostate Cancer Awareness Month

Prostate Cancer Awareness Month is a time that brings together healthcare professionals, community organizations, and health advocates. They are working to raise people’s awareness of prostate cancer. The disease, according to statistics, affects mainly men over 50. Every year, doctors diagnose almost 175 patients with related diseases, and almost 32 more men die.

History

Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer, surpassed only by skin cancer. The first operation to remove the prostate was performed by Hampton Young at Johns Hopkins Hugh Hospital in 1904. Since then, specialists have been looking for new methods of treatment. For example, they injected radium into the prostate. They also used various surgical methods, and in 1962 they began to use megavolt radiation. However, all of these techniques helped only patients in whom cancer cells were located only in the prostate gland. Also in 1966, a special rating system was proposed, on the basis of which doctors determined whether the risk of prostate cancer was low, intermediate or high.

Modern medicine uses a combination of radiation therapy and hormone therapy to treat the disease. At the beginning of the 21st century, the first robotic operation was successfully performed to remove the affected organ, and in 2010 the first anti-cancer vaccine was officially approved, which increased the survival rate of men with prostate cancer.

Useful facts

• According to statistics, one in eight American men suffers from prostate cancer.
• Ethnicity matters – the disease affects African Americans more often, being diagnosed in one in six of them.
• The older the man, the higher the likelihood of the disease manifesting. According to statistics, 6 patients out of 10 are older than 65.
• The disease is hereditary – if close relatives have been diagnosed with prostate cancer, the likelihood this will happen to you is quite high.
• In terms of prevalence, prostate cancer is ahead of such types of cancer as colon, kidney, and stomach cancer, and melanoma.

How to do Prostate Cancer Awareness Month

Read more useful information – the more people know about the disease, the more likely it is to recognize the symptoms and overcome it. Raise the awareness of other people, talk about prostate cancer on social networks – how to protect and help yourself. Become a volunteer and help people who have been given a terrible diagnosis. You can also make a donation and support research aimed at finding effective treatments.

When is Prostate Cancer Awareness Month celebrated in 2023?

Prostate Cancer Awareness Month is observed on September 1 each year.

Observations