Be a man and think about the prostate
The Be a Man campaign supported by Ricky Ponting and singer Angry Anderson encouraging more men to get blood tests to detect cancer risk has come at a time when the number of men having a prostate removed has risen by two-thirds in five years.
Although the Be a Man ads did not specifically promote tests, the chief executive of the Cancer Council of Australia, Ian Oliver, said they would make many people believe they needed one.
“At least men are beginning to recognise prostate cancer as an entity they have to think about,” Professor Oliver said.
However, despite 9,000 radical prostatectomies last year there is still no hard evidence that the cancers necessarily threatened lives. Andrew Giles, chief of the Prostate Cancer Foundation which initiated the Be a Man campaign, said more awareness might lead to excessive surgery – “there is some level of over servicing. Men need to be more empowered to make those decisions,” he said.
NSW Cancer Institute chief executive, Jim Bishop, said that trial results due next year would show whether prostate cancer screened men lived longer.
