Prostate Cancer Meetings: Black Men Act Fast
By Dianne Anderson
Health advocates are sending a clear warning to Black men – do not sit around watching and waiting when it comes to prostate cancer.
There’s no time for head-in-the-sand syndrome, or lagging on PSA and other tests.
Run, don’t walk, for the follow-up.
Erlinda Patterson and co-host James Miller recently started free prostate cancer meetings in Rialto where Black men are opening up about concerns on treatment and learning that knowledge is power.
Meetings are held at Greater Faith Grace Bible Church in Rialto, located at 249 East Randall Ave., every third Tuesday of the month at 6:00 p.m. Light refreshments are served.
“Our Black men particularly, a lot of times they don’t want to hear about it. They don’t want the digital exam – the finger wag. They don’t want to know if they have it. One of my buddies died because he’d rather have sex until he died,” said Patterson, who is retired from three decades of working health outreach at two major hospital systems.
No matter the health topic, she is not squeamish.
Her own husband complained of stomach pain, and she insisted on checking his stool for blood. It turned out that he had Stage 3 colon cancer. She took it upon herself to sneak vitamins into his breakfast smoothie while he went through chemotherapy.
His doctors recommended only surgery without chemotherapy, but she said no.
“I said I want to make sure he doesn’t have a recurrence. I told the doctor I want chemotherapy after the surgery. They said it’s going to be hell. I said yes, but at least he’ll be alive,” she said.
Besides making sure Black men get regular checkups, it’s important to get the right treatment early on, and develop the attitude of survival. In their meetings, she invites guests to come in and share their stories so the men can understand that they too can survive.
But it starts with regular PSA tests, Prostate Specific Antigen, a protein marker that shows if a man has the cancer. Black men are encouraged to start PSA testing at 35 to 40 years old because they are twice at risk of getting and dying from prostate cancer than white men.
Chemotherapy is very harsh, but effective if deployed properly. Patterson emphasized that men must take their lives into their own hands, and know what’s going on with their bodies. Doctors often don’t have time, or take time, to explain the process.
When she was a medical assistant, she watched as men sat stunned, crying alone in the room, at the news. The doctor would tell them to come back in a week or two to learn more about treatment options.
“I’d tell him you can have this or that treatment but don’t forget you’re going to have side effects,” she said. “You’re going to have erection problems. You’ll have urinary problems, but those things can be taken care of. Don’t be freaking out.”
They would leave peacefully.
Some of it is socioeconomics, some of it is lack of knowledge, but some of it is machismo. Her friend had advanced cancer, but he didn’t want treatment fearing a decreased libido.
“It was the idea that if I take Lupron I won’t get an erection. It’s a hormone-type drug by injection or pill daily,” she said. “This man died within the year and he could have lived another five or six years.”
Prostate cancer is often slow-growing, but not for African Americans. It’s not clear why, yet almost everyone agrees the survival rate is very high if caught early. Getting regular PSA tests can show if there is a spike in the numbers, which is why advocates urge Black men to test younger, and more often.
At the last meeting, she told the men that if they have prostate cancer, they must tell their sons, and they were shocked. She knows one man who didn’t tell anyone.
“His doctor said if you would have told us we could have been more active in checking him,” she said, adding that the doctor found his son at advanced stage prostate cancer.
The good news is that with early screening, survival is about the same as men who never had prostate cancer.
“10-year relative survival rate of 98 percent: Ten years after diagnosis, the average prostate cancer patient is just 2 percent less likely to survive than a man without prostate cancer,” according to Johns Hopkins University.
Eric Burroughs with the 100 Black Men of Long Beach has been reaching out for over a decade with the 100 Black Men of America campaign for Black men to start testing at 35 years old.
On September 14, he will be walking the campus at CSU Dominguez Hills where KJLH is hosting the Men’s Empowerment Summit. He said it’s important to reach Black men wherever they gather. In an October event, he will also distribute information at the huge annual Taste of Soul on Crenshaw Blvd. with their 100 BMLB booth set up at the KJLH section. There, he hopes to reach many more.
“It’s a pretty big deal, they draw about 300,000. We’ll be handing out information that City of Hope gives me, and I’ll be passing out information on both prostate and breast cancer,” he said.
Nationally, the 100 Black Men of America have quite a few men, who have dealt with prostate cancer, either going through treatment, but a lot are recovering, including one in their local chapter.
The local organization also works closely with Prostate Health Education Network, set to host its 20th Annual African American Prostate Cancer Disparity Summit. Among several topics, they will address state and federal policies to eliminate cost barriers to prostate cancer early detection Screening.
“Annually we have a summit with them, virtually as well,” he said. “That one is intricate because a lot of men that have beat prostate cancer speak at those conferences and they have used innovative clinical trials as part of their treatment.”
This month, PHEN hosts a full breakout of medical specialists with speakers and researchers from top university researchers, and the latest information on cancer treatments and choices.
On September 11, their panelists will look at Policies that Impact the Prostate Cancer Racial Disparity. On September 18, Community Outreach Initiatives and Their Impact. On September 25, Updates on Prostate Cancer Treatments, Care and Clinical Trials. All events are held from 1-3p.m. EST.
To register for PHEN Prostate Cancer Disparity Summit, see https://bit.ly/4fZGQWa
To learn more about treatments, see
https://www.cityofhope.org/clinical-program/prostate-cancer/treatments-survival
Research on eggs and red meat link to prostate cancer, see
To learn more about the 100 Black Men of Long Beach, see https://www.100blackmenlbc.com/
