Fans for the Cure just rang the closing bell to bring awareness to prostate cancer. Joining me now is our bell ringer, Ed Randall, founder and chief advocacy officer of Fans for the Cure, and Dr. Mark Stein, associate professor of medicine at Columbia University Medical Center. Gentlemen, welcome.
Thank you. What an honor to be here.
What was it like to ring the bell?
Just a fantastic experience. I'm a guy of a very few thousand words, and it leaves me speechless.
So you ring the bell to bring awareness to prostate cancer and the work that you do to help eradicate it. How big of a problem is prostate cancer?
The statistics are saddening. 33,000 men are going to die during this calendar year from prostate cancer. One in eight Caucasian men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer. If he's African American, one in six, where unfortunately the incidence of prostate cancer is two to three times higher than it is in the white community. Our job is to provide education, to get men to go to the doctors and get a simple PSA blood test to save their life as it did mine when I was diagnosed at the relatively young age of 47.
And Dr. Stein, why does this blood test, why does early detection matter for prostate cancer?
Prostate cancer, when it's found early, is curable. 99% curable if it's detected early and treatment is much easier. And for that matter, some people that have the blood test and might not need treatment, and so it's not something somebody has to panic about. It's something that you get, and then if there's a problem, you deal with it. And it can be life-saving. There's no reason, if it's not found early, cure rate goes down dramatically. 37% five-year survival if it's undetected early, 99% five-year survival if it is. With those statistics, it's really obvious what somebody needs to do. And I'm grateful that there are groups like Fans for the Cure that are doing it.
Ed, tell us about your work at Fans for the Cure. You say you meet men where they're at. What does that mean?
That means going into communities, going into the African American community, going to churches, going to barbershops and spreading our message that a simple PSA blood test will save your life. We learned of a statistic recently that was jarring that only 50% of men in this country know that a simple PSA blood test is the earliest diagnostic tool for detecting prostate cancer, only 50%. That's why Fans for the Cure is in business, to increase that percentage.
And Dr. Sun, when should men start having this conversation with their doctor about potentially getting this blood test? What age?
Right, that's a great question. 45 to 50 is now the standard guideline from the American Neurological Association. That's for somebody with an average risk, meaning no family history, no... personal history of other cancers, but for somebody who either has a father, brother, first-degree relative with prostate cancer, really they should start screening at age 40 and above. Also, men who are African-American, you know, that black community certainly should be screened a bit earlier given that statistic that you shared. And, you know, there's also a lot of fear, a lot of misconceptions that you need to have a rectal exam or other invasive procedures. You don't. The blood test itself is an excellent first screening tool and this way you can, you know, sort of catch the majority of men early and then sort of make additional assessments as needed. So the standard recommendation now is again 45 to 50 and there's no need to wait.
How accurate is the blood test?
So the blood test does a great job as a first pass. And then sometimes we need to do further investigations. Sometimes people can have benign disease that will also raise the PSA. But as time has gone on, our technology has really gotten much better to distinguish benign disease from malignant disease. But if you don't do the first blood test and sort of get that screening out of the way, then you'll never know. And again, you know, there are certain limitations to PSA, but as time has gone on with all the wonderful companies here in the stock exchange that are endeavoring to make our lives better, you know, there are additional ways of sort of detecting benign and malignant disease.
Ed, what do you want people to take away from today?
I want them to understand that there's a 99% cure rate of prostate cancers detected early. 99% and I'm one of those lucky guys. We have a medical advisory board of dozens of the greatest urologists in this country, including Dr. Stein. If somebody needs a doctor, they should come to us at fansforthecure.org. And constantly, every single week, we get calls and emails from strangers looking for information about prostate cancer. And we want them to know that if they need a doctor, we are happy to provide one for them wherever they may be in this country.
Ed Randall from Fans for the Cure and Dr. Stein from Columbia University, thank you so much for joining us at the New York Stock Exchange and congratulations.
What an honor.
