Radiologist wants more men to learn how to protect themselves during Prostate Cancer Awareness Month

COLUMBUS - One in nine American men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer.

Columbus Cancer Care wants you to know what you can do about the disease because it could save your life.

Radiologist Dr. Joan Keit said other than skin cancer, prostate cancer is the second-most common cancer in men.

“Men are more likely to die from prostate cancer than any other cancer besides lung cancer,” Dr. Keit said.

Columbus Cancer Care said Nebraska ranks 13th in the country for prostate cancer incidence, and 8th in deaths.

What causes it is still a mystery.  However, Dr. Keit said risk factors include age and family history.  She also said black men seem to have a higher chance of developing it.

If there's an upside, it's that if caught early, the survival rate is 90 percent and treatments have less long-term side effects.

“Treatments are less aggressive and less toxic when we find it early,” Keit said.  “As a cancer becomes more advanced, we need to have bigger fields of radiation, more aggressive surgeries or sometimes both.  We might need to use hormonal therapy or chemotherapy, which have more side effects."

She said there often aren't symptoms in early stages, so that's why it's important to screen for it regularly with a blood test called a PSA.

She said you should start doing it at age 50, but that black men and those with a family history of it should begin at 45.

With September being Prostate Cancer Awareness Month, Dr. Keit said she'd like to see more blue around.

"Prostate cancer is actually at least as common as breast cancer is in women, and it would be nice if we could raise awareness," she said.  "A lot of men don’t want to talk about it, they don’t like talking about urinary symptom or sexual symptoms and it’s more of a quiet disease.”

In fact, they're asking local businesses to encourage their employees to wear blue every Thursday this month.  If employees make a small donation, the proceeds will go to the Columbus Cancer Care Foundation to help those in the Columbus area who have prostate cancer.

If you would like more information on the Go Blue campaign, visit: https://www.columbuscancercarefoundation.org/prostate-cancer-awareness-go-blue