In line with her free health webinars aimed at empowering people in Africa to take charge of their health, DiagnoStar, a digital telehealth solution, on the 24th of July 2021, hosted another free webinar, on the topic, “ Prostate Cancer – Early Detection and Screening,” in collaboration with Onyekachi H Ogbonna, M. D., FACP – Hematologist and Medical Oncologist at Oregon Health & Science University – Portland, Oregon – USA.

The webinar was as empowering, as it was eye opening, to the importance of early detection and treatment options that help to not just prolong life, but favour a healthy and normal lifestyle in patients diagnosed with prostate cancer.

The webinar drew participants from Nigeria and other parts of Africa who were curious to learn about early detection and management practices available for prostate cancer.

Here are some key takeaways from the lecture centered around risk factors of the disease, as well as screening, diagnosis, risk stratification and treatment options:

• Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer in men and results in an estimated 366,000 deaths annually worldwide. It’s incidence increases with age. 
• Risk factors of prostate cancer include age, ethnicity (More common in Blacks or people of African descent), family history/genetic factors, diet, obesity and environmental carcinogens.
• Early screening and detection is key to curing prostate cancer. The screening test is called Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) test, and is done with blood samples from patients. Potential risks of this test include false-positives, cost, anxiety, and treatment complications. Screening typically starts at age 50 in general, but should start earlier (age 40-45) in blacks given higher incidence. Screening should also be done every 1-2 years.
• Prostate Cancer is diagnosed by performing an Ultrasound-guided needle biopsy of the prostate in order to obtain tissue. If biopsy shows cancer, the architectural features of the cells are used to generate a Gleason score based on the 2 most prevalent differentiation patterns (1-5) in the sample. The higher the Gleason score or Grade Group, the higher the likelihood of having non-localized (higher risk) disease.
• The treatment of prostate cancer is dependent on the risk stratification: For low risk, early stage, treatment options include Active surveillance (PSA and biopsies until progression), Radical prostatectomy (RP), Radiotherapy; for intermediate risk, treatment options include Active surveillance, Radical prostatectomy, with Pelvic LND, or Radiotherapy with 4-6 months of ADT; and for high risk, treatment options are Radiotherapy + 18-36 months of ADT, Radical Prostatectomy + extensive pelvic LND +/- XRT.

The webinar, which lasted an hour, also gave room for participants to ask questions and receive specialist answers and guidance. Dr. Onyekachi Ogbonna also delved into preventive lifestyles that can be of benefit to older demographic, even as he reiterated the importance of annual screening as a major determinant in successfully fighting the disease. 

To watch the full webinar, please visit our Youtube Channel to watch the full video.