Prostate cancer hits younger men | oncologist

At 48, Jorge L. Garcia was a bit young for a PSA blood test, used to screen men for prostate cancer.

But his new doctor ordered the test as a routine practice for his male patients. The screening came back elevated, triggering a second test with an even higher PSA level. Then came a biopsy and finally, the diagnosis: Garcia had prostate cancer.

When you hear the words, it doesnt process in your head. Youre at a loss, he recounted. Garcia, with a family history of cancer, thought surgery was his safest bet. It was not something I wanted to play with, he said. Now Im going on almost seven years out. Im very lucky.

The American Cancer Society estimates there will be more than 240,000 new cases of prostate cancer in the United States in 2012, and about 28,170 men will die from the disease. Prostate cancer is the second-leading cause of cancer deaths in men, even though more are surviving the disease and there has been controversy over screenings.

Dr. Johannes Vieweg, chair of the urology department at the University of Florida, said prostate cancer has received a bad rap recently. Its trivialized as a lifestyle disease that only affects older men, said Vieweg, who has seen many younger men diagnosed.

I think we should not dumb down prostate cancer. It needs to be tackled. It needs to be treated, it needs to be diagnosed and you need to do the right thing according to the age of the patient and the type of cancer.

Last year, the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force recommended that healthy men should no longer receive a PSA blood test to screen for the disease, after determining it didnt save lives overall and often leads to more costly tests and treatments that can cause pain, impotence and incontinence.

Many doctors take issue with that recommendation. We urologists strongly oppose that recommendation, Vieweg said. We start screening or talking to men at age of 50. We recommend a conversation every year.

Thats what the American Cancer Society recommends as well. Starting at age 50, men should talk with their doctor about the benefits and limitations of prostate screening. Men at high risk black men and men with close relatives diagnosed with prostate cancer before age 65 should talk with their doctor earlier at 45. Men with many close relatives diagnosed should start at age 40.

Dr. Mark Soloway, professor and former chair of urology at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, said a PSA screening for men younger than 75 is like a cholesterol reading, that indicates someones likelihood of developing coronary artery disease. The PSA tells us which men are more likely, if we biopsy them, to develop prostate cancer, he said.

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Prostate cancer hits younger men

Source: http://www.oncologist.tv/cancer/prostate-cancer-hits-younger-men.php

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