Monday, September 3, 2018

September

Reminding all the guys out there that it's Prostate Cancer Awareness month. So be sure to get checked. And here's some special guests to say more.


8 comments:

jimbo26 said...

Can someone PLEASE do that to Dumpy ????????????????????

bobbie said...

Thank you for my first great big belly-laugh of the day!!!

Moose said...

Geez, I love Robot Chicken. Ever since the very first episode where they had the (original series) Battlestar Galactica "blooper reel" with Cylons falling everywhere... which was actually based on fact! They couldn't see anything outta those things.

Also, not Robot Chicken, but have you seen Star Trek Cribs? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9NXBXUd42s It was a tv commercial for a re-broadcast of the original series.

larryb said...

I know how these crew member felt. I had a rough digital rectal exam that save my life. I had ductal prostate cancer that PSA may not increase. So men out their a normal PSA does not mean their is no cancer present

JenInCincy said...

Doc, tsk tsk!! An update to the USPSTF guidelines was published 4 months ago! https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2680553

The goal of routine prostate cancer screening is to identify high-risk, localized prostate cancer that can be successfully treated, preventing the morbidity and mortality associated with advanced or metastatic prostate cancer. However, the vast majority of screen-detected prostate cancers are low-risk.

Early detection and treatment of prostate cancers from PSA-based screening may prevent 1.3 prostate cancer deaths over 13 years per 1,000 men age 55-69, but does not reduce all-cause mortality.

Prostate cancer is relatively common (occurring in perhaps 20% of men in their 50s and 33% of those in their 70s), but the mortality rate is low (2.5% lifetime risk) and overwhelmingly in the later years (more than 2/3 are over age 75), when the potential benefits of screening don’t outweigh the expected harms.

USPSTF recommendation:
“Clinicians should not screen men who do not express a preference for screening and should not routinely screen men 70 years and older.”


So there’s really no scientific justification for prostate cancer screening, but if a guy refuses to accept the evidence aggregated by many large, long-term studies, he needs to understand that screening carries a considerable risk of harm (15% of men experience at least 1 false-positive screening PSA test, leading to unnecessary, painful prostate biopsy and the risk of procedural complications), and treatments for prostate cancer that probably would be fine left alone have high rates of serious long-term effects:
-Erectile dysfunction (2/3 of those receiving radical prostatectomy; over 50% who got radiation therapy)
-Urinary incontinence requiring use of pads (20% of radical prostatectomies)
-Bowel urgency, fecal incontinence, and other bothersome bowel symptoms (over 15% of those who had radiation therapy)

NOTE: This recommendation applies to adult men without symptoms or a previous prostate cancer diagnosis, including those at increased risk of death from prostate cancer due to family history or race/ethnicity. (African-American men are more than twice as likely as white men (44.1 vs. 19.1 deaths per 100,000 men) to die of prostate cancer.)

jono said...

My delightful nurse practitioner had small fingers and still detected something amiss. I may owe her my life.

A. Marie said...

My only question is why we never saw the depicted scene enacted on the original Star Trek with Kirk and McCoy. It would have been one of Bones's finest moments.

Packer said...

On my return from vacation I suppose I shall act on the Prostate MRI RX sitting on my desk. I have IBD and am told that PSA is unreliable for us

 
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