Cancer is the second leading cause of death in America, and prostate cancer is the number cause of cancer related death in American men. According to Dr. Mark Kawachi, director of the prostate cancer center and Dr. YuNing Wong of the Fox Chase Cancer Center, older men are more prone to receiving this cancer, and least likely to receive treatment for it. They believe that it is better to treat prostate cancer in elderly people aggressively rather than to wait and watch for signs of progression as is commonly done. Experts believe that age should not be a factor in treatment for prostate cancer.
Prostate Cancer is the most common type of cancer among older men. More than 234,460 cases are expected to be diagnosed in the US this year and of those, 27,350 deaths are expected. Two-thirds of victims will be over the age of 65, and yet, the other one-third will be treated first just because they are younger. Why should the older people’s needs be neglected? They are just as important as the younger people of America.
Let us take a look at the other side of the coin, however - older men are harder to cure than younger men. Most oncologists put off treatment of older ones on the assumption that most prostate cancers are slow growing. The older men are more likely to die from some other cause before the prostate cancer becomes a serious problem. Their bodies do not heal as quickly. However, do they not still deserve the chance?
Here is why methods for treating older men should change. Surgery or radiation therapy in elderly men increases chance of survival by at least 30%. Their life expectancy raises 10 to 15 years. And now, studies are beginning to challenge long held beliefs about prostate cancer. The older men of America have just as much of a right to the treatment as the younger men do.
The elderly are just as much in need of treatment as anyone else. The older men make up two-thirds of the 234,460 cases of prostate cancer. The older men, although harder to cure, are still just as much of people as the rest of us. The life expectancy increases 10 to 15 years on average for most of these men. Is that long enough of a time span to care about? The older people of America deserve better than this and we ought to be ashamed.
