Honoring Caregivers
- Actress Kristen Bell, 40, recognized all the caregivers out there in a special Instagram post for World Cancer Day, announcing her fourth partnership with the Prostate Cancer Foundation. “Caregivers- I see you. You do so much and get so little recognition.”
- Bell and husband Dax Shepard, 46, lost Shepard’s father to prostate cancer while Bell was pregnant with their first child, and he never got to meet her in person.
- Dr. James Brooks, a surgical oncologist from Stanford Medical Center, told SurvivorNet that men should start getting a PSA test (which is a blood test that screens for prostate cancer) at 45.
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Affected By Prostate Cancer
Bell and Shepard have two daughters Lincoln Bell, 7, and Delta Bell, 6. When Bell was pregnant with their first child, Lincoln, Shepard shared an emotional moment at the time of his father placing his hand on wife Bell’s pregnant stomach from his hospital bed, feeling the energy of his granddaughter that he would never meet.
“It was an amazing, incredible, perfectly timed surprise,” he had said. “She lifted her shirt up and he put his hand on her swollen stomach. He left it there for the better part of an hour. He was smiling from ear to ear, sitting contently, unable to put together a sentence, but still capable of connecting to the new family member we were creating. He wasn't going to make it to the birth, but that didn't get in the way of him meeting the new baby. It was an emotional and triumphant moment. One I will never forget. If I live to be a thousand, I will still be in debt to my wife for giving him that one last thrill.”
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Guidelines For Prostate Cancer
Dr. James Brooks, Chief of Urologic Oncology at Stanford Medicine, told SurvivorNet in a previous interview that men should start getting screened at age 45 (although sometimes guidelines are up for debate so it’s best to talk to your own doctor on what is best for you). “If a man has an elevated PSA,” he said, which is a blood test to screen for prostate cancer, “he has somewhere around a 20 to 40 percent chance of having prostate cancer. I would recommend that they get a PSA around 45.”
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Vital Information on Prostate Cancer
In a previous interview with SurvivorNet, Dr. Edwin Posadas, the Medical Director of the Urologic Oncology Program at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center explained what information is important for doctors to know during a visit. “We know as doctors that there are certain men who are at high risk for having prostate cancer. Men of African descent, for example, fall immediately into a high risk category,” he said. “Men whose fathers or brothers had prostate cancer are at two to three times the risk of the general man living in America of having prostate cancer. Those pieces of information are critical to bring forward in an examination when you’re seeing your doctor.”
Dr. Posadas also expressed the main issue that may prevent men from getting checked. “No man is really excited about having a rectal examination, which means that a doctor has to literally touch the prostate gland through the rectum. Honestly, it takes less than 30 seconds to get it done. It’s relatively painless. I’m not saying it’s comfortable. But at the same time, the amount of information that can be gained from that is tremendous, and it can be a life and death type decision that is made.”
When Should I Get Tested for Prostate Cancer?
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