Father's Day Focuses on Need for Prostate Screening State health officials want to encourage the public to use this Father's Day to remind a loved one of the importance of screening for prostate cancer. You could save a life.
Prostate cancer is a disease of older men, increasing faster with age than any other major cancer.
Because of the slow, and in many cases asymptomatic progression of the disease, many men have it without knowing it, unless they undergo routine screening. In Oklahoma, an estimated 2,100 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer and an estimated 450 will die from the disease this year. Prostate cancer is the most commonly diagnosed form of cancer other than skin cancer among men in the United States. It is second only to lung cancer as a cause of cancer-related death. These organizations also recommend that screening start at age 40 for high-risk groups, such as men with a family history of prostate cancer and men of African descent.