Our interview with the Prostate Cancer Foundation, Part 1

PART 1
We couldn’t have done this week without our friends at the Prostate Cancer Foundation.
In addition to being an invaluable resource Dan Zenka, Vice President of Communications, took the time to share some illuminating facts and statistics with us.


From Vice President of Communications Dan Zenka

Please tell us a little bit about the Prostate Cancer Foundation and what it does.
• The Prostate Cancer Foundation (PCF) is the world’s largest philanthropic source of support for accelerating the world’s most promoting research for discovering better treatments and cures for prostate cancer.
• PCF was founded in 1993 and has raised nearly $400 million and provided funded to more than 1,500 researchers at nearly 200 institutions worldwide.
• PCF advocates for greater awareness of prostate cancer and more efficient investments of governmental research funds for transformational cancer research. Our efforts have helped produce a 20-fold increase in government funding for prostate cancer.

Could you give us an idea of who Prostate Cancer affects? How widespread is Prostate Cancer?
• Prostate cancer is the most common non-skin cancer in America, affecting 1 in 6 men.
• In 2010, more than 218,000 new prostate cancer diagnoses will be made and more than 32,000 men will die. That’s a new diagnosis every 2.4 minutes, and a death every 16.4 minutes.
• The older you are, the more likely you are to be diagnosed with prostate cancer. Although only 1 in 10,000 men under age 40 will be diagnosed, the rate shoots up to 1 in 38 for ages 40 to 59, and 1 in 15 for ages 60 to 69.
• Approximately 65% of all prostate cancers are diagnosed in men over the age of 65; 35% are diagnosed in men younger than 65.
• African American men are 60% more likely to develop prostate cancer compared with Caucasian men and are nearly 2.5 times as likely to die from the disease.
• A man with a father or brother who developed prostate cancer is twice as likely to develop the disease. This risk is further increased if the cancer was diagnosed in family members at a younger age (less than 55 years of age) or if it affected three or more family members.
• For men in the U.S., the risk of developing prostate cancer is 17%.

If someone is diagnosed with this illness what support can the Prostate Cancer Foundation offer?
The Prostate Cancer Foundation is committed to advancing research to discover better treatments and cures for prostate cancer. PCF provides information regarding the disease, facts and statistics, treatment options, side effects, recent discoveries, advances in the field and more for patients and their families. For more information, visit www.pcf.org.