ALTHOUGH THERE is evidence that preventative measures such as decreasing fat intake, eating less red meat, taking dietary supplements such as vitamin E and selenium and eating more soy-based proteins, processed tomato paste (ketchup) and Chinese green tea all play a role in decreasing the likelihood of developing prostate cancer, the condition nevertheless still occurs.
Moreover, adverse risk factors for developing prostate cancer such as Black race, positive family history, high testosterone levels and advancing age cannot be altered or manipulated as diet. The prevention of prostate cancer, based on currently available evidence, is at best ambitious and is unlikely to be fully realised, as there is strong genetic and ethnic predisposition in some populations of men such as ours.
This is not to discount the role of diet however, as dietary influences may retard or promote the development of prostate cancer in genetically predisposed men. It is rather, to give men and their loved ones a realistic perspective on the issue of prostate cancer prevention.
If we cannot therefore completely prevent prostate cancer from developing in men, how can we beat the scourge of this disease which robs men of their middle and twilight years just as they are about to enjoy the fruits of their lifelong toil and labour? The answer lies in early detection programmes such as that conducted by the Jamaica Cancer Society.
This programme is aimed at discovering prostate cancer in its pre-symptomatic or pre-clinical stage in men at risk. When discovered at this stage the cancer is more often than not still confined to the prostate and has not spread to surrounding tissues or distant sites in the body (metastases). It is at this stage that the cancer is still potentially curable through eradication of all cancer tissue via surgical removal or by radiotherapy (X-ray treatment).
If men at risk, that is, men 40-years and older, wait until symptoms and signs are present before coming in for medical evaluation, then more than likely their cancers would have already spread to other sites, rendering them incurable. Once the cancer has spread it cannot be cured, it can only be controlled by treatment with hormones or removal of the testicles, and control is not for an indefinite period of time. Eventually the cancer will outsmart the controls placed on it and resurface, ultimately resulting in the death of the patient.
Next week: The screening tests
Dr. William D. Aiken,
consultant urologist, University Hospital of the West Indies.
