20th February 2008
[QUOTE=creeman;3449970]I am a 33 year old male.My family has a history of cancer.My dad died at age 40 from pc.As did most of his brothers and dad.But at what age should I start to get screaned for this?
You sure are doing the right thing by paying attention to this early. :)
I'm glad you are going to get screened at your next appointment. That makes good sense to me in view of your history. (Both my paternal grandfather and my father died from prostate cancer - though they were in their eighties, so I'm sensitive to this issue. I was diagnosed with a PSA of 113.6 in Dec. 1999 at age 56, with other bad case characteristics matching the PSA. Thanks to modern treatment, I am doing well. :))
There are different guidelines out there. I believe the one Daff mentioned is the most widely used (testing at 40 when there is high risk) and advocated by highly respected organizations, including the American Cancer Society as I recall it, but doctors whom I consider leaders like to see testing as early as age 35 for men when there is a high risk due to family history. One, Dr. Charles Myers, has even advocated testing starting at age 30 for such men because he has been concerned by the disturbing number of young men he sees, in their 30s and early 40s, who already have metastatic disease; it seems likely that your father would have been in that group. That is not common, but it happens often enough to make you think twice, especially if it's in your own family. It's apparently very unlikely that the PSA and/or DRE will indicate cancer at age 30 or so, but it will give the patient a baseline. That's consistent with the comment by jrponalameda.
At your age it would be good to have a PSA below .8 according to Dr. Mark Scholz, a leader in the patient empowerment movement.
There are some nutritional and other lifestyle tactics that appear to help lower the odds of getting prostate cancer. One hypothesis is that even for those with unfortunate genes, appropriate prevention tactics can prevent the genes from being turned on (or good ones turned off).
One of the most important preventive elements appears to be vitamin D, and you live far enough north that your vitamin D level may be low even though you have youth going in your favor. By the way, the pioneering researcher who led the way on this is one of your fellow Ontarioans, Dr. Rheinhold Vieth, from the University of Toronto. (You can check his research by using the US Government website [url]www.pubmed.gov[/url] and searching for "vieth r [au] AND vitamin D ". Click on the hypertext authors lists to view an abstract of each study.)
You can get your vitamin D level tested and boost it with a supplement if it is low. I have mine tested regularly and try to keep the 25-hydroxyvitamin D level between 50 and 80 ng/ml, aiming for near 80. I am just a layman patient without any enrolled medical education, but this is the range I have seen recommended by the doctors whose advice I follow. There are several books about these tactics if you are interested.
There are also several fairly mild drugs (my opinion) that may help. They are finasteride (formerly Proscar) or Avodart, and a statin drug.
All of these preventive tactics have impressive research behind them, but none of it is conclusive yet, except arguably for finasteride.
Take care and good luck,
Jim
You sure are doing the right thing by paying attention to this early. :)
I'm glad you are going to get screened at your next appointment. That makes good sense to me in view of your history. (Both my paternal grandfather and my father died from prostate cancer - though they were in their eighties, so I'm sensitive to this issue. I was diagnosed with a PSA of 113.6 in Dec. 1999 at age 56, with other bad case characteristics matching the PSA. Thanks to modern treatment, I am doing well. :))
There are different guidelines out there. I believe the one Daff mentioned is the most widely used (testing at 40 when there is high risk) and advocated by highly respected organizations, including the American Cancer Society as I recall it, but doctors whom I consider leaders like to see testing as early as age 35 for men when there is a high risk due to family history. One, Dr. Charles Myers, has even advocated testing starting at age 30 for such men because he has been concerned by the disturbing number of young men he sees, in their 30s and early 40s, who already have metastatic disease; it seems likely that your father would have been in that group. That is not common, but it happens often enough to make you think twice, especially if it's in your own family. It's apparently very unlikely that the PSA and/or DRE will indicate cancer at age 30 or so, but it will give the patient a baseline. That's consistent with the comment by jrponalameda.
At your age it would be good to have a PSA below .8 according to Dr. Mark Scholz, a leader in the patient empowerment movement.
There are some nutritional and other lifestyle tactics that appear to help lower the odds of getting prostate cancer. One hypothesis is that even for those with unfortunate genes, appropriate prevention tactics can prevent the genes from being turned on (or good ones turned off).
One of the most important preventive elements appears to be vitamin D, and you live far enough north that your vitamin D level may be low even though you have youth going in your favor. By the way, the pioneering researcher who led the way on this is one of your fellow Ontarioans, Dr. Rheinhold Vieth, from the University of Toronto. (You can check his research by using the US Government website [url]www.pubmed.gov[/url] and searching for "vieth r [au] AND vitamin D ". Click on the hypertext authors lists to view an abstract of each study.)
You can get your vitamin D level tested and boost it with a supplement if it is low. I have mine tested regularly and try to keep the 25-hydroxyvitamin D level between 50 and 80 ng/ml, aiming for near 80. I am just a layman patient without any enrolled medical education, but this is the range I have seen recommended by the doctors whose advice I follow. There are several books about these tactics if you are interested.
There are also several fairly mild drugs (my opinion) that may help. They are finasteride (formerly Proscar) or Avodart, and a statin drug.
All of these preventive tactics have impressive research behind them, but none of it is conclusive yet, except arguably for finasteride.
Take care and good luck,
Jim