U.S. Senator Thom Tillis, a Republican from North Carolina, announced Monday he will have surgery for prostate cancer.
He released a statement on Twitter: “Next week, I will have surgery in North Carolina to treat prostate cancer. I am in the hands of outstanding medical professionals and expect to make a full recovery. I am blessed that my cancer was detected relatively early, and I can’t emphasize enough how important routine screenings are, regardless of how healthy you think you are. I had no symptoms and would have never imagined I had cancer. My prognosis is good because I went to my annual physical and received a PSA test, which led to a biopsy and eventually my diagnosis. Early detection can truly save lives.”
Read MoreAbout Prostate Cancer
Prostate cancer is typically detected via PSA prostate specific antigen test. This type of blood test looks for PSA in the bloodstream, and the presence of it may indicate cancer. In an earlier interview, Dr. James Brooks, a urologic oncologist at Stanford Medicine said of the PSA test, "Current guidelines are to start screening at age 55 and continue screening through age 70. The reason for that is prostate cancer diagnosed after age 70 has a reasonably low probability it's going to take your life because prostate cancer, even in its aggressive forms, when it's localized is a relatively slow-growing cancer."RELATED: More About Prostate Cancer
Dr. David Wise, a medical oncologist specializing in prostate cancer at NYU Perlmutter Cancer Center, said in an earlier interview to consider risk factor, too, when it comes to screening.
"Men who are at high risk because of a family history should have PSA testing earlier," said Dr. Wise. "At latest, age 40, but probably even by age 35, they should have an initial PSA. That PSA test at a younger age, it's a more accurate test because the prostate has not increased in size, which can cause the test to be more difficult to interpret."
Treating Prostate Cancer
Other than skin cancer, prostate cancer is the most common cancer in American men, according to the American Cancer Society. About 249,000 new cases will be diagnosed in the US this year. 1 in 8 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime. The disease can be treated with surgery, radiation, hormone therapy, and chemotherapy.
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Dr. Stephen Freedland, a urologist at Cedars-Sinai, said in a previous interview of prostate cancer surgery, "A lot of times, people are like, look, I just want the tumor out. Just cut it out, and I want to be done. I said, great, surgery's a good choice for you. It's typically done through a robotic technique today, at least in the United States."
"But a lot of patients are still getting open surgery," he said. "Depending on the surgeon, it may be two, three, four, five hours somewhere in that range, usually spend one night in the hospital. You wake up from the surgery with a catheter in your bladder. Once you're home, it's really just recovering, gaining your strength back. The catheter comes out about 10 days after surgery."
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