As part of its commitment to the communities it serves, Riverside Health System will offer free prostate screenings in September – Prostate Cancer Awareness Month – in Gloucester and Newport News.
The Gloucester screenings will be hosted by Riverside Urology Specialists at 7552 Hospital Drive, Building D, Suite 302 on Wednesday, Sept. 19 from 4:30 to 6 p.m.
The Newport News screenings will take place at the Riverside Cancer Care Center at 12100 Warwick Blvd. on Thursday, Sept. 20 from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m.
To make an appointment at either location, call Mary Cleckler, RN, BS, OCN, the Riverside Prostate Patient Navigator, at 757‑534‑5196.
Prostate cancer is the second most common form of cancer in men—with only skin cancer being more common—and will be diagnosed in one out of six males over the course of their lives.
In many cases, prostate cancer doesn’t cause any symptoms until the disease process is in its later stages. For that reason, annual screening exams are a critical component to diagnosing the disease early. Early diagnosis allows a wider variety of treatment options, as well as a chance to stop the disease from spreading elsewhere in the body.
The American Cancer Society and the American Urological Association encourage men to talk to their doctor about the risks and benefits of prostate screening. Included in this discussion should be factors that increase risks for prostate cancer such as age, family history and race.
Age, race, family history and diet can all influence a man’s risk of developing prostate cancer. Specifically, risk for developing prostate cancer increases with age, going up significantly after age 50, and African-American men have a higher risk of developing the disease than men of other races.