INFOBAE: symptoms to catch prostate cancer in time

Friends star James Michael Tyler died of the disease at 59. Specialists explain how early detection raises the chances of a cure.

Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of death among cancer patients in Latin America. In Argentina, it is the third most common cancer and the first among men.

After the death of Friends star James Michael Tyler at 59, from the disease he had first been diagnosed with in 2018, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that it is the second most common form of cancer in the United States, after breast cancer.

Specialists say that regular check-ups can detect it early and raise the chances of treatment and cure, though they acknowledged that all men are at risk of prostate cancer and that the most common risk factor is age. The older a man is, the more likely he is to have prostate cancer.

“It is advisable to see a urologist, who can advise the patient on the best way to monitor the health of his prostate. If it is diagnosed early, the chances of cure and survival are high,” said Dr. Gonzalo Vitagliano, head of the Oncology and Uro-laparoscopy section at Hospital Alemán.

This is an excerpt from the feature published in INFOBAE on 10/25/2021. Read the feature on INFOBAE.