Prostate Talk: To limit the poking and prodding

OK, adult sons, can I have your attention please?   When you were a teenager, your father might have had The Talk with you. Remember how awkward that was for both of you?  Now it’s your turn to stammer out to him some important information, to have A Talk with him, about his prostate and what to do about the damn thing.  June is Men’s Health Month, and with Father’s Day coming up on Sunday, there’s no better time for The Talk.

You can see a short video of advice by Dr. Harry Fisch, a Board-certified urologist at New York Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Medical College of Cornell University, or read excerpts from the interview below.

Q:  What is the best way for men to educate themselves about prostate treatment?

A: 4Kscore.com is a website about the most modern and sophisticated test for the aggressive form of prostate cancer—that’s prostate cancer that can kill you.

A lot of times men are getting prostate biopsies that are unnecessary.  Three out of four men, when they get a biopsy, don’t have cancer.  We want to limit the poking and prodding that men get.  The more sophisticated 4K test can decrease the number of unnecessary biopsies and gauge the risk of having aggressive cancer.  That’s what the 4K score test is all about.

Q:  How would you advise adult sons to talk to their fathers about prostate cancer?

A:  We don’t want denial.  Men are in denial, denial, denial about their health.  Men who are older tend to not want to go to the doctor. and are more reticent to really discuss their health.  Young men can talk to their parents, and say, “Look,  I’m doing it.  It’s my turn to teach you about proper health.”  Young men are more attuned to information.  It’s the Information Age on the Web.  Get that information from the Web. Show it to your father, and your mother too, as well, so they can get as much information as you got.   Make them more savvy.

Thanks to Dr. Fisch, and Mike Bako and Alex Cole of D.S. Simon Media for organizing and producing the interview.  Read another story on prostate cancer decision-making.