By Spokesman Newsroom
BASSETERRE, St. Kitts (Thursday 11th January 2024) – “99% of the people who have prostate cancer have zero symptoms. That’s why coming to a screening even if you’re feeling well, even if you’ve been screened a year before is so important because it’s the regular screening that we’re gonna pick something up that you wouldn’t have realized.” Urologist Dr.
Chris Gomez from Florida, US made the disclosure during an instudio appearance on Freedom FM’s (106.5) ‘Issues’ programme aired on Thursday 11th January 2024 during a promotional outing with his colleague Dr. Dan Caruso and Neil Owen of the Rotary Club of St.
Kitts-the organizing group for an upcoming free prostate cancer screening event. That event is slated to take place on Saturday 14th January 2024 at the Mount Olive Lodge located at Taylors Range from 6:00AM to 2:00PM and also includes a general wellness check for men ages 40 and up.
Dr. Gomez in talking about prostate cancer being very prevalent highlighted the importance of screening. ‘It is one of the more prevalent cancers so it’s really important to screen for but as well as part of the screening is when you go through regular screenings, even if you’ve been to a screening before, it’s important to come back because if we catch prostate cancer early, it’s actually a highly curable disease.
It’s people who put off testing and screening that you don’t catch it until you have symptoms or you don’t catch it until later in the stages when you have difficulty. But when you catch it early, it is a highly treatable, curable disease.” His colleague Dr.
It is extremely important for a number of reasons. For one, afroCaribbean men are at higher risk; it is approximated that they can be as high as four times more than Caucasian males. Such he said is believed to be related to genetic factors.
“In fact in the US we start screening African American men at an earlier age for that reason. So those who have a family history… so we start factoring in these various risk factors and underscore the importance of getting this done once annually.
It’s a relatively simple process. They do a wonderful job here; it’s well organized, it’s free, it’s a simple blood test and exam,” Dr. Caruso added. Front Page Image: Men in line for the free prostate screening organised by the Rotary Club of St.
Kitts in July 2018. Notably, over 300 males attended the event then. (Spokesman Snap)
