What does Colin Powell have in common with Doug Moe? How about Robert DeNiro and Dusty Baker? Or try adding ex-Denver mayor Wellington Web and George Carl to the mix. All of these leaders in their fields have had to deal with the same dread.

"When my doctor said, 'You have prostate cancer,' I was thrust in an immediate and fearful state of confusion..."

That wasn't your neighborly grocery store clerk or your local postal employee saying those words. It was a man who faced death as an occupation General Norman Swarzkopf for cancer is the great equalizer, and prostate cancer brings strong men emotionally to their knees. Yet most men have no idea what prostate cancer is, even though September has National Prostate Cancer Awareness Week. They fail to understand that prostate cancer is one of the most common types of cancer. They also fail to realize that nearly ALL MEN WORLDWIDE will develop prostate cancer if they live long enough; although it may never cause symptoms or be diagnosed.

So what is prostate cancer? And how does it develop? First things first.

The word prostate literally means to "stand before or in front of." The prostate is a walnut sized organ located in front of the bladder, behind the muscular wall of the abdomen. It surrounds the urethra and is adjacent to the seminal vesicles. The prostate itself is made up of compressed tissue and an intricate series of channels and canals called ducts and ductules, which are lined by fluid-producing cells. Cancer develops when cells in the prostate begin to grow out of control.

The origin of prostate cancer isn't completely understood, but the best available evidence shows that a pre-cancerous condition, called Prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia, or PIN, involving microscopic changes in the appearance of cells lining the prostate, leads to developing invasive cancer. This year (2005) 232,000 American men will be told they have prostate cancer. Of that number, 99% will live 5 years or more after diagnosis, 92% will make it 10 or more years, but only 61% will make it 15 years.

Prostate cancer occurs almost 70% more often in African-American men than in whites. African-American men are also more than twice as likely to die from prostate cancer as whites. One reason for the disproportionate death rate is that Africa-American men are usually diagnosed in advanced stages.

Just what are the symptoms of prostate cancer, and what happens when you get to the doctor's office? Unfortunately, since prostate cancer is so slow growing, there are usually no early warning systems. There are, however, some signs that would warrant talking with your local physician:
   * Frequent urination
   * Blockage of urinary flow
   * Urinary leakage
   * Urgency and need to get out of bed and urinate at night

There are three universally approved methods of diagnosing prostate cancer:
   (1) Digital Rectal examination (DRE)
   (2) Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA blood test), and
   (3) Biopsy [removing small pieces of tissue for microscopic exam.

Fear of the discomfort of the first exam, and fear of the results of the second and third exam is enough to keep many men from ever finding out whether they have prostate cancer early enough for successful treatment.

Dr. David Crawford, Urologist from Veterans Hospital and University of Colorado Hospital is the father of National Prostate Cancer Awareness Week in September. He began to understand the need for just such an awareness program when he worked with Howard Hughes and his assistants in 1989.

"There is pretty good evidence that there are other factors relating to causing prostate cancer," Dr. Crawford said recently in an interview_including diet, including cholesterol and testosterone levels. During National Prostate Cancer Awareness Week, clinics all across the country focus on all of these things."

Conclusions

With early diagnosis, treatment can be quite successful. All men over 50 years old and African-American men over the age of 40 should be checked yearly for signs and symptoms of prostate cancer. In fact, every September would be a good time.