Time to get your prostate checked

Jorge Alberto Gonzalez-Hernandez

The local media was today invited to the conference room of the K.H.M.H. for a continuing medical education session. It featured a presentation by head of the department at the National Institute of Oncology and Radiology in Cuba, Doctor Jorge Alberto Gonzalez-Hernandez on prostate cancer. Doctor Gonzalez has investigated the tumoral markers in prostate cancer and the use of vaccines in kidney tumors. But one thing that has drawn the attention of the doctor is that the number of known cases of prostate cancer in Belize is low and he believes that is not accurate. Doctor Gonzalez spoke of some of the symptoms that can be used to detect the disease.

Dr. Jorge Alberto Gonzalez-Hernandez, Oncologist (Translated)

“Here in Belize, the prostate incidences are low. And it seems to me that it should not be that low because it is detected highest amongst black men around fifty years of age. It seems to me then that they should do a program to detect this condition because it seems to me that a number of men have not been tested for the disease. All the patients that have forty-five years and that have a history of the disease in the family or those that are fifty years old and have symptoms of the disease, these patients should be taking a test. And depending on the results of that test, other exams should follow to determine whether or not they have cancer.”

A clinic was held following the media brief allowing for testing. Follow ups will be done with urologist, Doctor Marcus Rugama. Gonzalez-Hernandez heads back to Cuba on Saturday and his visit is part of the month-long public awareness campaign of the Cancer Society.