Prostate Cancer - A growing scourge for men
Seniors Choice Newsmagazine
July 2004
- by Rudy Loeser -
In the year 2001, 18,477 Canadian men were diagnosed with prostate cancer. By comparison, the same study, published in a monograph by the Canadian Cancer Society and the National Cancer Institute of Canada, in collaboration with Health Canada, Statistics Canada and university-based and provincial cancer agency-based research, shows the incidence of new cases of breast cancer in women as 18,534. Which means that the incidence of prostate cancer was almost the same as that of breast cancer. In British Columbia, the incidence of prostate cancer had outpaced that of breast cancer 3,100 cases to 2,600 cases.
A similar study, conducted at the outset of 2003, predicted the incidence of new prostate cancer cases across Canada to be at 18,800. The figures are staggering and, really, beyond comprehension. The figures for new prostate cancer have surged ahead of lung cancer by 50%. Those statistics beg the question of why prostate cancer appears to occur largely under the radar of public knowledge, whereas, by comparison, breast cancer takes up a far greater portion of public awareness. We decided to consult with the Executive Director of the Okanagan Prostate Resource Centre, Mr. Bren Witt.
Mr. Witt, himself a 8 1/2 year survivor of prostate cancer, in 1997 established a support group for other men who had survived the disease, for families of the men, as well as those who were bereaved by the death of loved ones. The Resource Centre, on Kelowna's Tutt Street, receives its funding and is directed by five-person Board of Directors, which includes a Urologist, a Lawyer and a Chartered Accountant. Mr. Witt staffs the office during the week, counselling, dispensing information, keeping lines of communication open to other support groups across the country, to medical professionals, even pharmaceutical companies. He receives no salary, since funding from various sources falls far behind that which is available to breast cancer, for example. Witt believes that the reason for this disparity may be a result of poor public relations. Whereas breast cancer is one of the best-known charitable causes in this country, as well as in the United States, male prostate cancer appears to have been hidden from the public conscience by the fact that men tend not to talk about their intimate health problems, much less a disease as unpalatable as prostate cancer.
Whereas fundraising events for Breast cancer have become hugely successful events with public participation counting in the millions, the male reticence we mentioned has kept prostate cancer under a bushel, it seems. Moreover, Federal Government Funding Sources have, this year, turned down applications for funding of prostate cancer research, lumping this specialty in with general cancer research (though continuing to fund breast cancer). According to Witt, it is time that prostate cancer took a more public stance and its agencies instituted more aggressive campaigns of information and fundraising.
Bren Witt, who is facilitator of the Kelowna Prostate Cancer Support and Awareness Group was recently honoured by Bob Shiell, president of the Canadian Prostate Cancer Network as the first recipient of that national body's President's Award - a high honour indeed, one he has earned through seven and a half years of selfless dedication to this important cause, by helping people find their way through the shock and grief of affliction, by dispensing advice, holding seminars, speaking to potential sponsors as well as publishing and editing a monthly newsletter. Mr. Witt has earned the respect of hundreds of people whom he has counselled, of the members of the medical profession who deal with prostate cancer and other male afflictions.
The office of the Okanagan Prostate Resource Centre is: suite 210A - 3001 Tutt Street in Kelowna, V1Y 2H4. Telephone: 250-712-2002. Fax: 250-712-2004. E-mail:
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p.s. There is no doubt in the writer's mind that increased awareness will lead to increased funding for prostate cancer research and for the people who, like Bren Witt, devote their lives to that cause, even though there is no money to pay them for doing their jobs. They do deserve to be paid, as do other people in offices of all kinds across the country. |
