Guest post by Ash Tewari, MBBS, MCh, the Kyung Hyun Kim MD, Chair in Urology in the Milton and Carroll Petrie Department of Urology at the Mount Sinai Health System

September is often a bittersweet moment in time: an end to weekends at the beach, late sunsets, grilling dinner in the backyard, and family vacations. But September also ushers in a new season: a return to school for our children, the start of a theater subscription, baseball playoffs, and more. For health professionals in the urology field, it is a special time. Prostate Cancer Awareness Month reminds us of how many men we can save with increased awareness and early detection and is a solemn reminder of those patients whose cancer had progressed too far to intervene successfully.

The controversy over when and who to screen for prostate cancer continues to confuse men and their loved ones and frustrate a majority of urologists. In 2012, The United States Preventive Services Task Force came out against screening for prostate cancer for any men, claiming that screening all men results in over diagnosis and treatment. The American Urological Association disagreed, but responded by revising their guidelines, recommending screening men at risk at 40 and encouraging men from 55 –70 to engage in shared decision making, speaking with their doctors about their personal risk for prostate cancer and the benefits of screening.

We believe that all men should be screened by the time they are 50 (men at highest risk around 40), or at a minimum, be speaking to their doctors about the screening process. The PSA blood test is not a perfect tool. But, along with a DRE (digital rectal exam), screening with the PSA is the best defense we have to diagnose a cancer that is forecast to account for 27,540 deaths this year. The PSA test gives us a number that can be tracked over time, and does allow us to best predict cancers that are likely to be aggressive. The PSA has resulted in many fewer advanced cases of prostate cancer at the time of diagnosis.

Like a Bengal tiger, prostate cancer can be gentle or vicious. Metastatic prostate cancer is not curable and late stage disease is marked by intense pain, fatigue, weakness and a highly impaired, very poor quality of life. But when prostate cancer is detected early, nearly 100% of men are cured. And in the hands of an experienced surgeon, and with the precision that robotic prostate surgery affords (magnification of the operative field and less blood loss than open surgery), treatment side effects are minimal and can usually be resolved in a reasonable time frame.

This September, we hope you will start this new season and mark Prostate Cancer Awareness Month by talking to your physician about your risk, getting screened if appropriate, and encouraging family and friends to do the same.

Join us on September 16 for our Men’s Health Fair, hosted by Dr. Ash Tewari, from 10 am – 2:30 pm in the Guggenheim Pavilion Atrium at 1468 Madison Avenue.