Oh, by the way...Happy National Prostate Cancer Awareness Month

Maybe I do. Ask your acquaintances why they think prostate cancer doesn't get the attention it deserves. Let us know how many say, "Well, because of overtreatment." LOL

It's not the PSA test that has given prostate cancer a "bad name," although I think this is a common misconception. Rather, it is PC overtreatment that has given prostate cancer a "bad name" and driven it into the shadows.

I think this perspective is commonly portrayed:
"Oh, you've got prostate cancer? Isn't that where the treatment is typically worse than the disease, and most men are unnecessarily incontinent or limp?"

If we fix the overtreatment problem, the commonly portrayed image of PC improves dramatically.

Well, I think this helps to solidify the common understanding that we need to start with a very basic understanding. Some might call it a very basic “PC Awareness.” For those who have already been diagnosed, we experienced HW/PC “vets” often call it a very basic “Patient Education.” Learn the basics, first, before saying or doing something goofy or that you might regret later.

The clear evidence of this need to understand the basics is statements like this:

clocknut said...
Or maybe we just need to fix the perception that ... side effects are inevitable.

Most folks with PC experience will recognize—intimately—the folly of this statement.

You see, side effects ARE inevitable with PC treatments. The number of side effects (and there could be many), and the extent of those side effects, and the duration of those side effects may be variable amongst different patients, but I’d like to ask for the man who has been treated for PC who has not suffered a loss of ejaculate to step forward for admission into the Guinness’s Book of World Records…because you are a freak.


Here’s what we should do about it…let’s start a movement for two months for Men’s Health:

September for Prostate Cancer Overtreatment Awareness Month, and
Movember for Advanced Prostate Cancer Month

This will help to break the terrible dis-service we currently do to advanced PC cases now by lumping them together with favorable-risk cases, diluting enthusiasm, interest and resources. As I’ve said, let’s draw attention and resources towards, not away from, the advanced cases which are the types that actually can & do take 26,000 lives per year in the US.

Can we do two months for Men’s Health?

Post Edited (JackH) : 10/17/2016 9:40:13 AM (GMT-6)

Clocknut, I just now read this thread and agree with most of your comments and think they were very well stated. You put into words what many of my thoughts are. While I am a little tired of getting involved in some of these over treatment discussions I'm glad to read some who mirror my point of view....Thanks, Jim

alephnull said...

Let's face it things like Mother's Day are exponentially bigger than Father's Day because we all love and want to protect and honor mommy.

I think you are onto a truism, there, alephnull, which will always be difficult to overcome.

I have also not seen a scientific study, but this is a situation where anecdotes may be appropriate:

• Timing matters. In May, schedules are clearing up because school is getting out and the season is changing, making it the perfect time to buy mom some potted plants for the garden. Compare that to late June, which tends to be a busier and costlier time thanks to wedding season and family vacations.
  
  
• It can be more of a struggle to get gifts for dads compared to moms. Children are more likely to buy mom something such as a card, flowers or a sweater — maybe even brunch. The gift for Father's Day might be different, and could be a struggle to find something he might enjoy, it often ends up being the inevitable tie, golf gadget or gift card.

The best Father's Day for me is some quality time with my kids. But you are right...it's just really because it's mom.


OK, we digress here. How do we build some momentum for "Movember--Advanced Prostate Cancer Month," and September--Prostate Cancer Overtreatment Month?

What can be done to support September -- Prostate Cancer Overtreatment Awareness Month?


One physician has suggested a radical approach to ending PC Overtreatment, and he published his idea in a recent issue of The ASCO Post, an editorial page (sending a message to other physicians) for the American Society of Clinical Oncologists.

His idea is based on the observation that there is extraordinary physician variation in the management of favorable-risk prostate cancer and that it has a strong economic basis. His recommendation is public reporting of a physicians’ cancer management profiles. This would represent, in his view, a “name and shame” approach that might provide a solution while we await payment reform to curb overtreatment. If physicians cannot do the right thing for the right reasons, then the second-best resolution would be that they at least do the right thing for the wrong reasons.


www.ascopost.com/issues/august-15-2014/active-surveillance-in-low-risk-prostate-cancer-when-will-we-pay-it-more-than-just-lip-service.aspx

So, at my Uro today I saw a flyer for a test for advanced PCa that claimed to be 94% accurate.

Sorry, I can't remember the name, but it was a blood test. I think "K%' something.

But, instead of a PSA test, use this test. It claimed that it practically never showed low risk PCa..

There, if this isn't a crap product, I just solved the problem of over treatment for G6s.

Fantastic idea! And then a carefully selected group of right thinking PCa overtreatment advocates will convene regularly and compel those practitioners who refuse to follow their prescribed regimen of treatment to wear a blue (for Prostate Cancer) letter "M" around their necks. I call it the Hester Prynne approach.

At the same time, our "overtreatment awareness month" will further convince American males that they should keep all urologists at arms length and avoid all thought of possible prostate issues to avoid being overtreated, as we all know almost all men are.

Keep those ideas coming.

Post Edited (clocknut) : 9/10/2016 8:53:44 AM (GMT-6)

0311 said...
Hello All,Every 19 or so minutes a man dies from prostate cancer.This is not a "Good Cancer".Sorry

Whenever someone raises the notion of prostate cancer being a "good cancer," I often correct them by saying that there are "good prostate cancers" and "bad prostate cancers"...there is a whole lot of the good kind, and far fewer of the bad kind. You should feel free to do the same. In fact, you can give them this background:

The notion that prostate cancer is a "good cancer" is a contemporary gross misinterpertation of the words of PC-pioneer Dr Willett Whitmore (1917-1995; known as "the father of urological oncology"). Paraphrasing, it was the wise Dr Whitmore who appropriately characterized that there are "good prostate cancers" and "bad prostate cancers."

clocknut said...


My mind is fixed on the annual mortality numbers. And lately it's also fixed on my youngest brother, whose G6 diagnosis and a year of AS has now become G7 with surgery scheduled for early next month. And there are still folks on this site who would suggest he continue AS.

Well, he had a year of AS, so that's a year to the good, but somehow that "non-cancer" has now become intermediate risk. Go figure.

So,

Then there's those of us, including several here on HW, who were G6 at DX and had the surgery only to get his post-op pathology upgraded to 3+4. Count me squarely in the 'G6 whose glad he had the surgery' camp.

I honestly don't understand why anyone would think that "Prostate Cancer Overtreatment Month" is anything but an absolutely ridiculous idea.

"Prostate Cancer Awareness Month" is intended to cover ALL aspects of prostate cancer, including what to do/not do after you've been diagnosed. But this constant emphasis on "overtreatment" only serves to scare men away from the entire topic.

Are some men "overtreated"? I would prefer to say that it turned out that they would not have required treatment. But, in any case, that's part of the spectrum of understanding prostate cancer, which is what an awareness month is all about.

But why would anyone make it the focus? In fact, why would anyone be as obsessed with this particular aspect of dealing with prostate cancer as JackH obviously is?

If we increase awareness of the disease, with all its complexities, all its grey areas, all its areas of difficult decisions, "overtreatment" will inevitably become less common. Men, beginning in adolescence, need to be educated regarding potential prostate problems and the best options that come into play when diagnosed.

" In fact, why would anyone be as obsessed with this particular aspect of dealing with prostate cancer as JackH obviously is?"

Because JackH was over treated and he feels cheated. Just MHO.

Ask his friend NKinney, I'm sure he will agree.

I have come up with a theory that JackH and NKinney are doppelgangers. They agree with each other 100% of the time, heck they even have profiles that were created on the same date just 45 minutes apart.