BENTON — The Arkansas Prostate Cancer Foundation will host a free prostate cancer screening and education session will be held Thursday, Sept. 16, from 5 to 7 p.m. at Saline Memorial Hospital. It is open to the public but reservations are preferred.
For questions, contact Rebecca Jones at 776-6020 or Lauren Talbot at 748-1205.[more]
“It is the goal of the Foundation to reach all of our priority counties at least one time this year, and Saline County happens to be one of those counties,” said Rachel White-Wallis, Outreach Coordinator for the APCF. “We want to draw in as many men as possible to screen and educate them on the risks, symptoms, and treatments for prostate cancer.”
The Arkansas Prostate Cancer Foundation, an independent public charity, was founded by six prostate cancer survivors and an advisory committee of physicians in February 2000. The Foundation’s mission is to promote awareness, encourage timely detection and support improved treatment of prostate cancer in Arkansas. The Foundation sponsors free prostate cancer screenings at sites throughout the state and provides support through the Peer Network, which consists of survivors and survivor-mentors. For more information visit www.arprostatecancer.org or call at 1-800-338-1383.
Prostate cancer is diagnosed every two minutes in the United States. In Arkansas, approximately 2,000 men are told they have prostate cancer each year, and more than 300 die from the disease. In fact, more Arkansas men die of prostate cancer than women die of breast cancer. A man’s chance of surviving the disease is 99 percent with timely diagnosis and treatment. All men over the age of 40, especially those who are African American or who have a family history of the disease, should establish a baseline prostate specific antigen score or PSA score. Equally as important as the actual score is whether the number is going up and by how much. This is known as PSA velocity and can indicate an aggressive cancer. Arkansas has the 11th highest death rate in the nation.
