Private MD News

Group sponsors prostate cancer awareness week to alert men to importance of PSA testing

Category: Prostate

With Prostate Cancer Awareness Week just around the corner, advocacy groups are urging older men to seek PSA testing to determine their risk of developing the disease, as this method remains the most accurate and safest way to diagnose cancer.

The awareness week is sponsored by the Prostate Conditions Education Council. The group will be holding free PSA testing events during the week of September 18 through 24. Officials said testing is so important because prostate cancer can be treated relatively easily when it is detected early, but can be deadly when the condition progresses.

"In many men, prostate cancer is an aggressive disease that is most successfully treated when it is detected early on," said Dr. E. David Crawford, head of the Urologic Oncology Department at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. He is also the founder and chairman of the education council.

The council recommends that all men over the age of 35 discuss with their doctors how often they should undergo PSA testing. For some individuals, the group says yearly testing should start at this age.