WCPO: Middletown man hopes prostate cancer diagnosis inspires other to get screened

Reverend Michael Bailey and the University of Cincinnati Cancer Center's Nilesh Patil, MD, recently spoke with WCPO about the importance of screening during Prostate Cancer Awareness Month.

After being diagnosed with prostate cancer five years ago following years of routine checkups, Bailey is now cancer free following treatment.

"One of the reasons why this is a cancer where we advocate screening is because there is no symptoms of this condition,” said Patil, Cancer Center member and associate professor of surgery in the UC College of Medicine. "Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men in most of the world if you rule out skin cancers, and so the incidences of prostate cancer is pretty high."

Patil said Black men are disproportionately affected by prostate cancer, with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reporting Black men are more likely to be diagnosed and twice as likely to die from prostate cancer, and are additionally more likely to be diagnosed at a younger age and with more advanced stages of the disease.

“Getting a blood test is probably the most important part of the screening because we do have a test that can alert you to if something is abnormal,” Patil said. “If you catch this disease early, you can treat it early, you can cure it early. And if you don’t diagnose it, the consequences to your lifestyle, to your quality of life are quite detrimental.”

“If you love life, you’re better off being here than being somewhere else,” Bailey said. “We only have a season and we need not to expedite it because we failed to do those checkups.”

Watch or read the WCPO story.

Featured photo at top of prostate cancer cells. Photo/iStock/OGphoto.