It's Prostate Cancer Awareness Month--again

This is the 14th annual (I think) Prostate Cancer Awareness Month. 

I try to make a note of it each year just so none of us forget. There's not much new to say this year, but maybe just repeating the ever-improving statistics can give you an idea of the size of the problem.

1. More than two and a half million American men are living with prostate cancer or have been diagnosed and treated for prostate cancer.
2. 238,000 American men will be diagnosed this year.
3. Nearly 30,000 men in the U.S. will die from prostate cancer in 2013.
   

There is a trend for more men to be diagnosed with prostate cancer each year and fewer to die from it. That's good. Most men with prostate cancer will die from some other cause. Heart disease is the most common cause of death for men with prostate cancer. That makes sense--the median age of diagnosis is 66 so many men already have other health concerns.

My ten-year survival is not uncommon. Good doctors and new treatments have made a difference. Funding by the National Cancer Institute and donations to the American Cancer Society and other non-profit organizations have helped make research possible. Cancer research is very expensive and 'awareness' months have helped bring in money for research and improvements in treatment for other cancers as well. For example, I am taking a medication that was not available to me a couple years ago. I am able to live a more-or-less normal life largely because of medical research and clinical trials. Woo Hoo.

I'm still awaiting that magical time when the word CURE is at least as common as TREATMENT or MANAGEMENT.

axman