Taking aim at prostate cancer

By: centraljersey.com
"Bring a friend."
That’s the message organizers of an annual prostate cancer screening event held in New Brunswick are promoting this year in an effort to increase the number of men who are checked.
The Cancer Institute of New Jersey and its flagship hospital, Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, once again are teaming up to provide the screenings Sept. 27 through 29 during National Prostate Cancer Awareness Month. CINJ is a Center of Excellence at UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.
One in six men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer, according to the American Cancer Society. It is the most frequently diagnosed cancer in men, other than skin cancer, and the second leading cause of cancer death in men.
That is why CINJ and RWJUH join forces to educate men and their families about this disease through the annual screening, which is now in its 12th year.
Some 1,700 men have been checked over the past four years alone. They receive a digital rectal exam and a prostate specific antigen blood test as well as prostate-specific literature and have the opportunity to speak to a urologic oncologist from the Dean and Betty Gallo Prostate Cancer Center at CINJ. Spanish-speaking assistants also are on hand.
"Because this event has long attracted the support of local clergy and community leaders, we have been fortunate to see pairs and groups of men come together because they know each other from church or a social organization," said Mariam Merced, director of RWJUH’s Community Health Promotion Program. "While we encourage these men to return, we hope that they will bring a new participant with them so that we can continue to spread the importance of good prostate health."
"Bringing a friend accomplishes a couple of things," said Dr. Isaac Yi Kim, chief, section of urologic oncology at CINJ and associate professor of surgery at UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. "Not only does it allow us to provide a beneficial health service to another individual, but it also allows a level of comfort for the participant in having someone they know go through the experience as well."
Registration is open for the screenings, which run from 5 to 8 p.m. each evening at CINJ, 195 Little Albany St., New Brunswick, and are open to all men 40 and older. Limited free parking will be available. While the screenings are free, an appointment is necessary and can be made by calling 732-247-2050.
The Cancer Institute of New Jersey (www.cinj.org) is the state’s first and only National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center dedicated to improving the detection, treatment and care of patients with cancer and serving as an education resource for cancer prevention. CINJ’s physician-scientists engage in translational research, transforming their laboratory discoveries into clinical practice, quite literally bringing research to life.
The CINJ Network is comprised of hospitals throughout the state.