Early detection key to surviving prostate cancer - Can Prostate Cancer be prevented

Early detection key to surviving prostate cancer
By BOB FALLSTROM - H&R Community News Editor

Ramon Portee has a momentous anniversary coming up next month: 10 years since his prostate surgery.

"Get a test and save your life," the Decatur man advised.

"A lot of men don't want to have the test," he said. "Probably worried about what might turn up. The thing is, early detection means successful treatment. I took the screening test and look at me, I'm still here."

Portee's brother, Wayne, is also a prostate cancer survivor. "Ramon had it first. Then I started having trouble. I didn't think it would happen to me. It did.

"I had surgery in April 2001. In 2003, I had 39 radiation treatments. Tell every guy you know to take a test."

Take the Portees' advice and take the opportunity for free prostate screening, being offered from noon to 3 p.m. Saturday in Elks Lakeview Lodge 1132, 1080 S. Franklin St. It's sponsored by the Emanon Club and the Macon County Health Department.

It's the first time the Lakeview Elks Lodge has entered the prostate screening campaign, John Wilder said. He is the club's assistant social chairman and is a three-year prostate cancer survivor.

Another survivor, Jerry Smalling, a retired high school coach, said he had radical prostate surgery in 1998. "I preach testing all the time," he said. "I was coaching at South Piatt (Atwood) when I started feeling tired. I got a physical exam, and the blood test discovered the prostate cancer.

"I chose surgery, and I'm fortunate. I've been blessed." Smalling coached 35 years.

Bob Hermann, the leader of the Us Too prostate cancer education and support group at Decatur Memorial Hospital, has been a survivor for seven years. He is a major advocate of early screening.

American men are 35 percent more likely to be diagnosed with prostate cancer than women are to develop breast cancer, according to the Prostate Cancer Foundation, a 16-year-old charity that has pioneered new ways to speed up treatments and the search for a cure.

With one man dying from the disease every 18 minutes and another man diagnosed every three minutes, the Prostate Cancer Foundation has launched "The National Campaign to Cure Prostate Cancer" to give new hope to men fighting the disease.

You can contribute at Prostate Cancer Foundation, Gift Processing Center, Box 7015, Albert Lea, MN 56007-8015.