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Home News Free Prostate Screenings for National Prostate Cancer Awareness Month

Free Prostate Screenings for National Prostate Cancer Awareness Month

Published: Tuesday, August 21, 2007

One out of every six men in the United States will be diagnosed with prostate cancer at some point in his life. Nearly 219,000 new cases of prostate cancer are expected to be diagnosed throughout 2007, the American Cancer Society estimates.

Prostate cancer, second only to lung cancer as the leading cause of cancer death in American men, is expected to claim the lives of more than 27,000 American men this year. But physicians at The University of Tennessee Medical Center are working to save the lives of men who may be diagnosed with the disease. In September, National Prostate Cancer Awareness Month, the UT Medical Center Cancer Institute is hosting several free prostate cancer screenings.

“Nine out of 10 men diagnosed with early stage prostate cancer can go on to live a healthy life, as long as they receive and follow proper treatment,” said Dr. Paul Hatcher, a urologist at UT Medical Center. “It’s encouraging that more men are surviving a prostate cancer diagnosis and that the death rate for prostate cancer is going down. But we must remain focused on encouraging men to follow the recommended screening schedules if we want those rates to continue in a positive direction.”

The American Cancer Society recommends annual prostate cancer screenings for men age 50 and older. For black men or those who have a family history of prostate cancer, the annual screenings should begin at age 45.

The prostate cancer screenings hosted by UT Medical Center include a digital rectal exam and a blood test, called Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA). The schedule of screenings includes:

• Saturday, Sept. 8, 8 a.m. to Noon at UT Internal Medicine – Hardin Valley, located at 2587 Willow Point Way (one mile East of Pellissippi Parkway on Hardin Valley Road).
• Tuesday, Sept. 11, 8 a.m. to Noon and 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. at UT Medical Center’s Cancer Institute (Building D, 3rd floor), located on the main Alcoa Highway Campus of UT Medical Center
• Thursday, Sept. 20, 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. at UT Medical Center’s Cancer Institute
• Thursday, Sept. 27, 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. at UT Medical Center’s Cancer Institute
  

To schedule an appointment for a screening or for more information, call 865.544.6055. Screening is appropriate for men who have not had a screen within the last 12 months and who have not had a prostate cancer diagnosis.

“More than two million men in this country diagnosed with prostate cancer are alive today,” said Dr. W. Bedford Waters, a urologist at UT Medical Center. “Through early detection and proper follow-up visits and treatment, we’ll make sure the number of survivors continues to grow. That success begins with annual screenings.”

The exact cause of prostate cancer is unknown. There are, however, several groups of men who tend to develop prostate cancer at a higher rate, such as:

 

• Age 65 and older
• African-American men
• Men in North American and Western Europe
• Those with a family history of prostate cancer
• Those who eat higher amounts of red meat or high-fat dairy products
  

The University of Tennessee Medical Center is a 581-bed, not-for-profit academic medical center, which serves as a referral center for Eastern Tennessee, Southeast Kentucky and Western North Carolina. The Medical Center, the region’s only Level I Trauma Center, is one of the largest employers in Knoxville. For more information about the University of Tennessee Medical Center, visit online at www.utmedicalcenter.org.