Prostate Cancer and Early Detection

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Cancers at the early stages, tend not to have any symptoms whatsoever.

During prostate cancer's early silent stages, patients are effectively treated in as many as 97% of cases. A patient diagnosed with prostate cancer after experiencing physically uncomfortable symptoms (weak urinary stream, difficulty starting urination, interruption of urine flow, painful or burning with urination, Urgency or difficulty postponing urination, frequent urination, awakening frequently at night to urinate and / or blood in urine) can be treated successfully in only about 30% of the cases. The facts are clear, early diagnosis increases chances of recovery dramatically.

Prostate cancer is often curable when diagnosed and treated early. Urologists maintain that use of the PSA blood test along with the DRE to screen men for prostate trouble has changed the prostate cancer diagnostic landscape. Prior to the use of prostate screening to promote early detection of prostate cancer, nearly three out of four men diagnosed with the disease were in the late stages -- when prostate cancer is neither readily treatable nor curable. Screening has inverted that statistic, giving most men a fighting chance. Regional studies support that early detection reduces mortality.

Prostate cancer is a vicious killer and an enemy to families of North Carolina. The tests that so often detect it in time to cure are currently our best defense.

"You cannot sit back and do nothing because you'll never have perfect intelligence on the enemy...Get on with it."

-General Norman Schwarzkopf

"I'm not a type-B personality who knows I have a cancer growing inside of me and can live with the knowledge," he says. "I go into a kung-fu attack position when I go through the door of a hospital." The position apparently worked. Schwarzkopf made a speedy recovery from the surgery and is now cancer free.

Shortly after his diagnosis, Schwarzkopf says, he had his prostate removed, and a month later he was given a clean bill of health. He adds: "My doctor informed me the good news was that the cancer was slow-growing. And added the better news that all my cancer was sitting in a jar on his desk."

That summer Schwarzkopf was able to able to enjoy fishing for king salmon in Alaska and go on an African safari.

Schwarzkopf wants to break through a seemingly "macho" culture of denial and fatalism when it comes to this intimate topic of men's health. "I know men both joke about and dread the 'infamous digital rectal exam' — but that's what literally saved my life."

Schwarzkopf says he knows men also avoid screening because they fear that a positive diagnosis will result in a premature end to their sex lives. And he has two very clear answers to those who share those fears.

"First and foremost, men diagnosed with prostate cancer shouldn't presume that treatment will preclude a future filled with satisfying sexuality," Schwarzkopf says. "Secondly, even though some patients must cope with symptoms of treatable impotence, they have a very good reason to deal with the problem. The fact is that nothing in this world makes you more impotent than death."

Schwarzkopf is willing to be blunt to prompt American men to take action to protect their lives. "No one should have to die of prostate cancer if it's detected and treated early enough. But avoidance of the subject is simply matter of playing a losing game of Russian roulette."

"There were 541,000 Americans under my command in Desert Storm," Schwarzkopf says. "And while we were lucky enough to sustain minimal casualties in that conflict, we lose over 560,000 American lives to cancer every year."

"The good news is that this war can be won — with a combination of early detection, treatment and a commitment to ongoing research."

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Prostate Cancer Coalition of North Carolina (PCCNC)
5905 Shamrock Road
Research Triangle Park, NC 27713
919.321.0365
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