Knowing about cancers that most frequently affect men

By Injil Abu Bakar

NEW YORK (JP): The cancers that most frequently affect men are prostate, lung, colorectal, and skin. Knowing about these cancers and how they can be prevented or detected early can save your life.

Prostate Cancer

Each year, about 180,000 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in the United States, and it will claim about 32,000 lives. If prostate cancer is detected early it can be treated effectively, but early prostate cancer has no symptoms.

Who Is At Risk?

Most cases of prostate cancer occur in men older than 50, and more than 75 percent of these cases are in men over 65. For reasons that are still unknown, African American men are twice as likely as Caucasian men to develop and die from prostate cancer. Having one or more close relatives with prostate cancer also increases a man's risk of developing this disease.

The Best Defense: Early Detection

Prostate cancer can usually be detected in its early stages by having a prostate-specific antigen (PSA) blood test and a digital rectal exam (DRE).

The American Cancer Society recommends the following guidelines for early detection of prostate cancer: Your health care provider should discuss the pros and cons of early prostate cancer detection and treatment with you, and suggest that you have a PSA blood test and a DRE every year, starting when you are 50 years old. African-American men and men who have two or more close relatives (father or brothers) with prostate cancer should begin screening at 45 years old.

Lung Cancer

Lung cancer claims more lives than any other cancer. Every year it will strike more than 89,000 men in the United States, and an estimated 89,000 will die of the disease. Perhaps the greatest tragedy of lung cancer is that it can be almost totally prevented, but still takes so many lives each year.

Who is at risk?

People who smoke are at the greatest risk of getting lung cancer and a host of other tobacco-related diseases such as heart disease, stroke, and emphysema. Smoking is responsible for 87 percent of all lung cancers. Other risk factors include exposure to radon and asbestos, especially in smokers.

The best defense: prevention

Lung cancer is one of the few cancers that can be prevented because almost all of it is caused by smoking. If you don't smoke, don't start. If your friends and loved ones are smokers, help them quit.

Colorectal cancer

Colorectal cancer is a disease of the lower digestive tract. About 63,000 men in the United States will be diagnosed with it this year, and about 28,000 will die of the disease. Advances in the detection and treatment of this cancer have made it very treatable if caught early.

Who is at risk?

Anyone is at risk for colorectal cancer. People with a family history of the disease or who have polyps in the colon or rectum or inflammatory bowel disease are at somewhat greater risk than the general population. Diets high in fat and low in fiber place people at a higher risk for colorectal cancer.

The best defense: early detection

Most colorectal cancers begin as polyps which later become cancerous. These polyps can be detected and removed before they become cancer. In this sense, colorectal cancer is a disease that can be prevented. Eating food that is low in fat and high in fiber appears to lower the risk of colorectal cancer.

The American Cancer Society recommends the following guidelines for early detection of colorectal cancer:

Beginning at 50: Have a fecal occult blood test and flexible sigmoidescopy. Repeat the test annually and the sigmoidescopy every five years, or have a colonoscopy at 10-year intervals, or have a double-contrast barium enema every five to 10 years.

Your doctor should perform a digital rectal exam at the same time as sigmoidescopy, colonoscopy, or double-contrast barium enema. People at moderate or high risk for colorectal cancer should talk with their doctor about a different screening schedule.

Skin cancer

Although there are about one million cases of skin cancer each year in the United States, most of these cancers are easily treated and cured. One type of skin cancer, melanoma, is deadly if not treated early and the number of new cases is increasing rapidly in both women and men.

Who it at risk?

People with fair complexions, especially redheads, have a greater risk of getting this type of cancer than people with darker coloring, although anyone who spends a lot of time in the sun is at risk.

People who have had close family members with a melanoma are at higher risk for this type of skin cancer as are people who had severe sunburns before the age of 18. It is especially important to protect children from sun exposure.

The best defense: prevention and early detection

Most skin cancer can be prevented by avoiding prolonged exposure to the sun, especially during the midday. Wear protective clothing -- hats with brims, long-sleeved shirts-and use sunscreen on all exposed parts of the skin.

If you have children protect them from the sun and don't let them get sunburned. Examine your skin regularly, and have a skin exam during your regular health checkups.

Prevention or early detection is the best defense against cancer.

Early detection -- finding a cancer early before it has spread -- gives you the best chance of being cured. Too many men die each year from cancer. Knowing about these cancers and how they can be prevented or detected early can save your life.

Next week: Common cancers in women.

The writer, injila@hotmail.com, is a general practitioner based in Denpasar, Bali.