Man, did you do a prostate cancer screening?
Warren Buffett, Taiwanese writer Li Ao, South African President Nelson Mandela, and media tycoon Murdoch, these familiar names should be known to everyone.
They seem to have little connection in different countries, different fields, and different eras, but they all have one thing in common, that is, they are all prostate cancer patients.
The prostate is a male-specific organ, so prostate cancer is also a male-specific cancer, and at present, prostate cancer has become one of the malignant tumors that seriously threatens men's health.
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According to relevant research statistics, the incidence of prostate cancer in Chinese cities is 17.26 per 100,000, and in Shanghai, prostate cancer has ranked 5th among common male tumors and 1st among urological tumors.
China not only ranks among the top in the world in the number of people suffering from prostate cancer, but also has a 5-year survival rate of only 53.5%, compared with the United States in the same period, the 5-year survival rate of prostate cancer has reached 99%.
Why is there such a big difference in survival rates between China and the United States?
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Compared with China, the 5-year survival rate in the United States is almost twice that of ours, and many people are curious about what causes us to be so different.
In fact, what we are poor is not our level of treatment, but the lack of early detection and early treatment. Many prostate cancer patients in China do not come to the hospital until they are at an advanced stage, which leads to the lack of treatment.
The key to early detection of prostate cancer is prostate cancer screening, which mainly involves digital rectal examination combined with prostate-specific antigen (pSA) examination.
pSA is also recognized as the best initial screening method for early detection of prostate cancer. Therefore, when patients go to the hospital to screen for prostate cancer, the doctor usually does a digital rectal examination and will also draw blood to check for pSA.
Who needs early screening?
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At present, Chinese clinical guidelines recommend early screening for prostate cancer for these two groups:
01 Male over 50 years old
The incidence of prostate cancer increases with age, so clinical guidelines recommend that men over 50 years of age should have pSA checked once a year.
If men have lower urinary tract symptoms, such as frequent urination, urgency, increased frequency, and difficulty urinating, pSA should be done on an interim basis.
02Patients with a family history
If your family member has had prostate cancer, you'll want to be screened before age 45. The screening method is to check for prostate-specific antigen, as well as to do digital anal examination, etc., to see if there are nodules in the local prostate.