One of the most critical health issues facing men this Father’s Day weekend is prostate cancer. One man in every 7 will be diagnosed with prostate cancer and nearly 27,000 men die from it annually. It is the third leading cause of death in American men, after lung cancer and colorectal cancers.
As with most cancers, early detection is the key and there are a couple of developments concerning early detection. One is the PSA blood test. Studies have gone back and forth on whether the test just leads to unnecessary treatment. But, another tool in early detection for high risk of prostate cancer is gaining acceptance. The BRCA-1 and BRCA-2 genes, already established as indicators of possible breast cancer, are increasingly being used for the same role for prostate cancer.
In the video, Dr. Jeffrey Holzbeierlein (HOLZ-beer-line), urologist and medical director of the Burns & McDonnell High-risk Prostate Cancer Prevention Program, helps explain the recent consensus on PSA tests and the benefits of the BRCAs genes in Prostate cancer.
