Cancer society tasked men on early screening to prevent prostate cancer-related deaths. President of the Dominica Cancer Society (DCS), Yvonne Alexander, lamented that prostate cancer is among the top cause of untimely death among men in the country. She made this declaration at a public health forum which held during the weekend at the Public Service Union building.
Many countries around the world celebrated the month of September as a Prostate Cancer Awareness Month. The DCS took up Prostate Cancer Awareness Campaign as part of the celebrations. The public advocacy centred on educating Dominicans on the prevailing threats of prostate cancer and early intervention options to prevent the disease.
General Surgeon Dr. Theodore Thomas and neurologist Dr. Golnaz Naderkhani were the main speakers. Both speakers said early diagnosis is better than full treatment, and early diagnosis can only be obtained through early screening.
“We are very concerned because one of the points that was made by the neurologist is that the incidents of prostate cancer are very high in Dominica, exceedingly high and in fact, on a Caribbean global chart, I think Dominica is even number one in relation to the number of people per population size,” Alexander said.
According to the DCS president, men should not wait to develop symptoms before going for early screening because it is costly to manage prostate cancer once it develops. Drs. Thomas and Naderkhani advised that prostate cancer screening should be done early enough by men who are 40 years and above.
DCS engaged the services of several doctors to conduct screening for men for free or significantly reduced costs. Dr. Milinda Cognette, a general practitioner, offered to conduct free prostate examination for men at DCS’s Goodwill office on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The La Falaise Laboratory agreed to run the Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) blood test for men at 20% discount.
All medical experts including DCS’s resource personnel agree that most men survive prostate cancer when diagnosed and treated early enough.
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