MARK SCHOLZ, MD
In
this week’s blog I was supposed to finish out the “Helpful Medications” theme
started at my last blog. Specifically I need to make a case for using statin
drugs and metformin, a generic diabetes drug, to help suppress prostate
cancer. However, that blog has been
temporarily postponed in place of the following:
When
Ralph and I wrote Invasion of the
Prostate Snatchers we knew our highest priority was to calm people down so they could begin to think
rationally. Obviously the word “cancer”
freaks everyone out. People get so scared that all rational thought
ceases. They immediately jump into the
arms of the nearest doctor who is willing to offer a quick fix. With prostate cancer that just happens to be
a surgeon.
Scare
tactics are effective from a business point of view since in business “time is
money.” Frightened people act quickly and decisively, thus saving everyone time. The psychology of fear is also quite commonly
used in advertising. You have heard
these mottos and mantras many times before: “Time is Running Out,” or, “Space
is Limited.” No one wants to miss a
one-time opportunity.
The
threat of losing a one-time chance for cure naturally drives newly-diagnosed
prostate cancer patients to act quickly. And there is after all a certain type
of logic to people unfamiliar with prostate cancer. With almost any other type of cancer a delay
in treatment will reduce cure rates. Surprisingly with prostate cancer this is
only rarely the case. However, the idea of a “harmless cancer” is certainly
foreign to us all. It will take some time for newly-diagnosed patients to
absorb this unexpected fact.
That’s
why it is critically important to encourage men to take time to gather their
senses and calm down. Given some space
to reflect they will learn that with prostate cancer they need to weigh the
potential for treatment-related side effects against the tiny amount of
increased survival surgery or radiation offers in men with low-risk disease.
As
noted above, the fears and confusion incurred by a recent prostate cancer
diagnosis have a certain type of logic. But what is totally illogical is the
proliferation of articles I keep coming across on the internet that purportedly
describe the “Symptoms of Prostate Cancer.”
Invariably these articles present a long list of symptoms such as
urinary frequency, nighttime urination, slow urination, and blood in the urine as possible indications of prostate cancer.
These
articles are completely false! EARLY PROSTATE CANCER ALMOST NEVER HAS
SYMPTOMS. This is why the PSA blood test
has been so revolutionary. PSA can
detect prostate cancer before symptoms
of advanced disease occur. The most common symptom of prostate cancer—bone
pain—only occurs after the disease has spread to the bones. Prostate-related
symptoms, when they are present, signal another diagnosis such as prostatitis
or prostate enlargement. These prostate problems have nothing to do with prostate cancer. Symptoms such as these may need
evaluation and treatment but there is no reason to scare people with the
suggestion of cancer.
Competition on the
internet has become so fierce that just about any scare tactic is considered
acceptable, up to and including bald-faced lying. But
let’s put this falsehood to rest. The
myth that early-stage prostate cancer causes urinary or sexually related
symptoms is an exploitative tactic that can lead to all kinds of harm, creating anxiety and fear that results in
unnecessary diagnostic testing such as random needle biopsies that lead to the
over-diagnosis of low-risk prostate cancer.
1 comment:
Nice blog! all the images and contents are very good. Very informative blog I just read . GE 3S
Post a Comment