President Joe Biden’s recent diagnosis of prostate cancer has opened up conversations that are long overdue. Perhaps most importantly, it underscores the increasing impact of this disease on American men. He realized there was a problem only after going into the hospital for symptoms of painful urination. This serves as a reminder to be watchful and identify emerging health issues at the earliest signs.
Sadly, prostate cancer is going the other direction. The numbers paint a bleak picture—with reporters showing a 5% increase in year-over-year diagnoses among men who present with later, more advanced stages of the disease. This quite alarming statistic has raised the ire of health organizations. The American Cancer Society is now calling foul on that, at least in terms of what it tells us about future patients.
“Early detection is key, and we are concerned given the 5% year-over-year increase in diagnosis of men with more advanced disease,” – American Cancer Society.
Biden’s predicament can illustrate the bigger demographic challenges that lie within prostate cancer. Studies have shown that males, especially Black men, are at the highest risk for developing this disease. Non-Hispanic White men have more of the risk, but their risk is less than that of Black men. On the other hand, Asian American, Hispanic, and Latino men usually have a reduced risk of developing prostate cancer.
Since prostate cancer is hormone-sensitive, it makes its diagnosis and treatment all the more complex. The illness generally emerges in a variety of ways, such as neurological symptoms and urinary incontinence, which Biden displayed. As the disease progresses, most patients start to feel the adverse effects of worsening symptoms. These may manifest as bone pain, pathological fractures, weight loss, or even renal failure.
“Others present with bone pain, fractures, weight loss or kidney failure,” – Suneil Jain, PhD.
A key part of determining whether someone has prostate cancer is something called a Gleason score – a way to test how abnormal the cancer cells are. Scores go from as low as 2 up to 10. If the score is 9 or 10, it indicates the cancer will probably be aggressive and spread quickly. Men with high Gleason scores are at a substantial risk. For white men with prostate cancer, they only have a 21% chance of dying from that disease over the next decade.
We have gotten better at detecting them, but age is still the single greatest risk for prostate cancer. About 60% of all cases are diagnosed in men aged 65 and older. As men get older, especially over this cutoff, their odds of developing late-stage prostate cancer become exponentially higher. Family history Prostate cancer has a very strong hereditary aspect to risk. Along with smoking, inherited genetic variants such as BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations and other conditions such as Lynch syndrome play a role.
The truth of prostate cancer is sobering, nearly half of men diagnosed will go on to develop metastatic prostate cancer. This highlights the need for greater awareness and education about the disease’s risk factors and symptoms.
Leave a Reply