Ask your doctor about getting screened for cancer.
I was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1997. I had been getting yearly
PSA (prostate specific antigen) tests. Even though I had no symptoms,
the PSA test came up positive. This is almost always the case when
prostate cancer is caught early enough to be curable.
I was treated
successfully with surgery and radiation. Without the PSA test my cancer
almost assuredly would have gone to an advanced stage, beyond hope of a
cure.
Before the PSA test came into use, men were more often coming to their
physicians with symptoms, and therefore with advanced prostate cancer.
The death rate from prostate cancer has been falling steadily since the
advent of the PSA test. For example, one of the Austrian states
introduced PSA mass screening, reducing mortality from prostate cancer
by 40 percent.
I truly believe that without the PSA test I would probably not be here,
sharing my call to all men over 50 years of age to check with their
doctors about getting an annual PSA test. It's Your Life.
A message from the California Health Communication Partnership,
supported by the Oliver and Jennie Donaldson Charitable Trust. For more
information, call 1-800-4-CANCER.
