Men urged to take prostate cancer screening seriously

Murang’a,

Wednesday, December 20, 2023

KNA by Florence Kinyua

A Murang’a based medical practitioner has urged men to embrace regular screening for prostate cancer.

Dr Jeremiah Karanja Mugo observes that men with prostate cancer who get diagnosed before it spreads beyond their prostate gland are likely to get treatment easily and effectively as in its early stages, treatment often eliminates the cancer.

“Embrace screening as it becomes very expensive and difficult to treat a disease in its advanced stages,” he notes.

Dr Mugo says that a high percentage of men do not speak out or seek medical attention early enough and only do so when a disease has immobilised them in its advanced stages.

“Prostate cancer is a killer, let us take care of our health just as women carry out pap smears every now and then, let us embrace and normalise screening for prostate cancer,” he added.

Please do not stay at home and ignore early signs of discomfort as early stages of prostate cancer rarely cause symptoms and that is why screening is paramount.

Some symptoms of prostate cancer as the disease progresses include frequent sometimes urgent need to pee especially at night, weak urine flow or flow that starts and stops, blood in semen or pee, bone pain, erectile dysfunction, fecal incontinence among others.

Mugo observes that through advancement in technology there is a test that checks for prostate cancer easily.

“The prostate specific antigen (PSA) blood test whereby the prostate gland makes a protein called protein antigen(PSA) is the test for screening for prostate cancer where high levels of PSA may indicate cancer though the levels may rise if you have other benign conditions such as BPH or prostatis,” he says.

Prostate cancer is a cancer that affects the prostate. The prostate is a small wall shaped gland in males that produces the seminal fluid which nourishes and transports sperm.

Prostate cancer is one of the most common types of cancer and some of the risk factors include age whereby the risk of prostate cancer increases as a man ages, family history also plays a role if a blood relative or a close family member has been diagnosed with prostate cancer, your risk increases as well.

Other potential risk factors include obesity, smoking, prostatitis among others.

However the risk of prostate cancer can be reduced if one observes a healthy diet full of vegetables and fruits, maintains a healthy body mass index, and exercises often to improve their overall health.

Courtesy; KNA