Prostate Cancer is a Family Disease and Early Detection and Prevention is a Family Challenge
Prostate Cancer is a Family Affair
Prostate cancer is the most common male cancer and there are 240,000 new cases diagnosed each year. There are more new prostate cancer cases each year than breast cancer, but men and their families just don’t know about prostate cancer and the risk.
The bad news is that one in six men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer. The good is that prostate cancer is highly treatable if it is detected early. That’s why the Prostate Cancer Awareness Project (PCAP) created our free, Internet-based prostate cancer early detection tool – available free to everyone at ProstateTracker.org.
Valuable Prostate Cancer Information Sites
There literally are thousands of Internet sites providing information and perspectives about prostate cancer. Below you will find a few key resources to help you learn about the disease. Some are for prostate cancer survivors and men and families of newly diagnosed prostate cancer survivors. We’ve also included some links to sites that provide information about prostate cancer prevention that we believe is particularly important.
The PCAP team are not doctors or medical professionals, so we don’t provide medical advice or recommendations. These sites are meant simply to be first steps along your path to learning about prostate cancer and how to deal with the disease.
We welcome your feedback about these sites and recommendations for additional resources we might add.
Prostate Cancer Survivor Resources
American Society of Clinical Oncology
Association of Cancer Resources
Man to Man – American Cancer Society
Prostate Cancer Research Institute
Prostate Conditions Education Council
The ‘New’ Prostate Cancer Infolink
Prostate Forum – Dr. ‘Snuffy’ Myers
National Alliance for State Prostate Cancer Coalitions
The Prostate Health Education Network – focusing on African American prostate cancer issues
Informed Prostate Cancer Support Group – San Diego< California
Zero – The Project to End Prostate Cancer
Cancer Legal Resources
There should never be legal barriers associated with getting appropriate cancer treatment, but sometimes there just are. If you find yourself in that situation and live in the Los Angeles area, the Disability Rights Center at the Loyola Law School Public Interest Law Center has a Cancer Legal Resource Center. You can contact the Center at 213.736.8364 or reach them through the Internet at www.cancerlegalresourcecenter.org.
Prevention and Wellness Resources
No one knows exactly what causes prostate cancer, but research has established clear relationships between high prostate cancer rates and certain lifestyle habits. The American Cancer Society estimates that one third of all cancers, including prostate cancer, are directly related to nutritional and exercises habits.
The following links provide information about simple lifestyle changes that reduce a man’s likelihood of having prostate cancer. Once again, though, the PCAP does not endorse any of these sites, but we do believe they have great values.
10 Tips for Reducing your Prostate Cancer Risk from the Prostate Cancer Foundation
Prostate Cancer Prevention – National Cancer Institute
Books about Prostate Cancer – Consumer Reviewed on Amazon.com
Early Detection of Prostate Cancer
There is a lively discussion about the value of the Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) as a screening tool for detecting prostate cancer. At present, the PSA test is the best early detection tool available. There are false positive and false negatives associated with the PSA test, but we believe the solution is for men to personally track the change in their PSA value from one year to the next and then to discuss any change with their doctor or medical services provider as soon as a rise is detected. This process will provide both the patient and the doctor the best opportunity for catching prostate cancer early, while it still is treatable.
The biggest challenge in reducing the annual 30,000-man prostate cancer death toll in the United States is making men aware of the need for testing and providing a simple tool that makes their prostate cancer visible.
As of 2014, the PCAP’s ProstateTracker is the only Internet-based tool that tracks PSA changes year-over-year. Using ProstateTracker is simple:
- Create a free, anonymous account
- Record your annual PSA test value – ProstateTracker then plots the value and shows any increase
- Record your next annual PSA test number and look for a rising value – ProstateTracker will send you an annual email reminder when your next test is due
- If you PSA is rising, talk with your doctor or medical services provider immediately
- It’s that simple! And the ProstateTracker is free and anonymous – we do not ask for names
Next Steps
Every Donation Saves a Man’s Life!
Activate Your Free ProstateTracker Account Now. Just click the image below . . .
ProstateTracker is free, anonymous, and might just save your life. [Ladies: we don’t require or track real names, so you can create an account for the man in your life. We hope you will!]
