Q: If you have to get any one of nearly 200 cancers, isn't prostate cancer the best one to get because it's curable?
-- Pat
A: Prostate cancer tends to be curable. It is not "the ideal cancer," though, since cancer of any kind is no "picnic in the park."
With 27,000 men dying annualy, prostate cancer is the second leading cause of male cancer deaths after lung cancer. That's a lot of fatalities even though the majority of nearly 200,000 newly diagnosed cases in the USA (and 300,000 in Europe) don't end up dying due to prostate cancer.
Why do so many prostate cancer deaths occur? In part it's because an estimated 20% of American men don't get proper routine annual screening. Also, while prostate cancer is a slow-growing disease, in some cases it suddenly flares up and metastasizes. Fortunately, due to newer medications, even when prostate cancer has spread, patients can live for many more years.
Prostate cancer and its adverse treatment effects on survivors' quality of life also make it an onerous disease. As I've pointed out in my book, Conquer Prostate Cancer, an average of 2/3 or more prostate cancer surgical patients, and at least 1/3 of radiation patients, experience ED and 5% become permanently incontinent.
While it's important not to fear a prostate cancer diagnosis, it's still a struggle to learn how to cope effectively. This is so especially if boomer and senior men don't avail themselves of the medical and psycho-social resources available to help them cope with this disease. The resources provided by my book and blog will help make prostate cancer not only curable but livable.
--Rabbi Ed
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