One in eight men will get prostate cancer

Prostate cancer is a disease that affects men and can be fatal if not detected in time, it is the type of cancer that currently causes the most deaths in Venezuela. For this reason, it is important that men have annual checkups to evaluate their prostate health.

In this regard, within the framework of the month of November, when Men’s Health Month or “Movember” is celebrated, Jorge Moenac, urologist of the Santa Paula Medical Group (GMSP), recommended that men over 45 years of age undergo medical Pass through. Get tested to prevent the possibility of suffering from prostate cancer, as one in 8 men currently have this type of cancer due to lack of evaluation.

Moanack cited this statistic as an example, saying, “Imagine, eight or nine friends are at a barbecue and one of them is going to be diagnosed with prostate cancer.”

He indicated that the importance of checkups is in reducing mortality, as the disease is “very easy to treat” in its earlier stages. In this sense, he said that only one in every thirty or forty men suffering from cancer will die, “which tells us that cancer is a disease which, if detected early, can be cured. “

“The big problem with this issue is that many times men decide not to go to counselling, because we don’t feel bad and there is always the phrase ‘I’m not going because I don’t feel anything. Is.’ “Cancer is a disease that will be asymptomatic in the initial stage, that is, it will not cause any discomfort, trouble or symptoms, but this is the moment when it is very easy to treat and cure it without any side effects.”, Insisted. Expert.

“Erectile dysfunction and urinary incontinence may occur as side effects of surgery to treat prostate cancer,” he said. And these problems will be seen in patients where the cancer was diagnosed at an intermediate or advanced stage.

Ways to avoid this

Moanack advised trying to live “a good life with good nutrition, healthy food”, in addition to periodic checkups; “There are also sports, because they are elements that, although they do not prevent cancer, it has been observed that patients who maintain this type of quality of life have a lower risk of suffering from this disease.”

The expert recalled another prevention option, such as taking the prostate antigen, “which is a blood test to determine the values ​​or to see the possibility of some type of disease.” And it determines not only malignant diseases, but also infectious or inflammatory processes.

He stressed that it is very important that the person who interprets this test is a urologist, not every patient who receives the test from a laboratory. Likewise, he also warned about the importance of the person going to the doctor immediately and having the tests done reviewed by a urologist.