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Urges Jamaican National and Cancer Survivor Felicia Persaud |
New York, June 9, 2002: This Father's Day, June 16th, cancer survivor and Jamaican national Winston Dyer has a message for black, Caribbean and Latino immigrant children throughout New York: give Dad the real gift of love this Father's Day,
encourage him to get screened for prostate cancer. With 48.7 of every 100,000 black men dying of prostate cancer compared with 19.6 white men, the Queens resident says the message of early screening by blacks to ensure early detection is urgent now more than ever.
As a patient advocate coordinator with The Association for the Cure of Cancer of the Prostate (Cap CURE), the world's largest private source of prostate cancer research funding founded by cancer survivor Mike Milken, Dyer is vigorously taking his message to anyone who would listen homeless shelters, church groups, community organizations and even night clubs. On Father's Day, June 18th, Dyer and his Cap CURE team will be taking the message of early screening to Central Park, where the Cancer Research Institute will be holding its 5-Mile Race to help raise funds for research in the fight against prostate cancer. The Cap CURE mobile will be present to provide free screening from 8 a.m. 2 p.m. in conjunction with CRI, NPCC, ABC Television and Astra Zeneca Pharmaceutical. Additionally, there will be 1.6-mile health walk and races for children aged 2-12. For those who cannot attend the Father's Day screening, CAP CURE and Dyer will be providing the same service on June 15th, from 10 a.m. 2 p.m. at the Little Flower St. Teresa Church, at the Corner of Avenue D and Troy Avenue in Brooklyn.
Ever since Dyer was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1995, the 58-year-old former night club owner has made it his life's mission to get the message of early screening for the disease across to black, Caribbean and Latino men throughout the city.
The Caribbean-born advocate, who is also a board member of the National Prostate Cancer Association, says his mantra is simple. "We're hoping to try to eliminate the scourge of this disease," said the father of four. "I lost my brother and father to the disease and when I was diagnosed, I realized I didn't really know about it neither did my friends. Neither do 90 percent of
Caribbean men. I saw the void and got involved."
Today, Dyer, who is also a member of the Integration Panel of the Department of Defense and district manager of US-TOO/NYC, says gradually, he's trying to help Caribbean men overcome both fear and fallacies and get screened.
"It's very difficult to get black men to be screened, yet every single black man is susceptible," says Dyer, who hosted his first screening at a nightclub five years ago. "The excuse is mostly because of the rectal exam. We tend to go to the doctor only when we're sick and we don't do early screenings. But then it's too late."
So Dyer has devised other ways to help get black and Latino men in for screening. He's turned to women, urging them to get their mammograms while bringing their husbands or boyfriends in for a Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) test. He's also using the opportunity to speak at funerals of cancer victims, and while the idea may seem morbid to some, Dyer says the loss of a
close relative, friend or neighbor to cancer often pushes men to go out and get tested.
The cancer activist cites fear of becoming impotent and of being unable to control bladder functions, fueled by a lack of knowledge of the disease, are among the major factors why black men are delaying screening. But Dyer said once the disease is diagnosed in its early stages, most men return to their normal life soon after treatment.
"The wrong information is floating around," said Dyer. "The only thing you can't do after is have children but you can have sex between 9 months to 1 year once it's treated early."
He is also a major promponent of yearly and even semi-annual screenings, depending on the PSA reading of the patient and strongly disagrees with a recent government-funded survey that says annual screenings is not necessary for men with low readings.
"I think it (the cancer) grows faster in younger men," said Dyer. "So if they're not screened every year then the reading the next time around could be significantly higher."
When readings are between 4 and 10, experts say there is about a 40 percent chance the man has prostate cancer. Over 20, the risk is virtually 100 percent.
Prostate cancer is the most commonly diagnosed form of cancer, other than skin cancer, among men in the United States and is second only to lung cancer as a cause of cancer-related death among men. It is estimated that 189,000 men across the United States will be diagnosed with prostate cancer this year, with 1 in 48 men, particularly black men, between the ages of
40-59 being most affected. The American Cancer Society also states that an estimated 11,800 live in New York while 1,900 may succumb to it. Over fourteen percent of every 100,000 Hispanic men die from the cancer compared to 11.3 of every 100,000 American Indian men and 8.0 of every 100,000 Asian/Pacific Islander men.
In the boroughs of Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx, Dyer says the heavy influx of immigrants have resulted in an upsurge in prostate cancer rates. Often, most of the men may have had the disease in their homeland but were never tested. Once here, lack of health insurance or a green card, usually results in lack of medical care for these men. Yet, says Dyer, this is the
population most at risk. The cancer activist has been able to get many men of color without money or insurance treated, but he warns early screening is still the key.
Dyer says a Chinese diet low in fat and rich in fruit and vegetables is ideal. Researchers based at the University of Rochester in New York recently found that adding vitamin E to prostate cancer cells inhibits the production of a receptor for testosterone, called the androgen receptor, which is needed in order for the cancer to grow and develop.
For more information on the Father's Day Run, register online at www.nyrrc.org; in person at the NYRR Running Gallery at 9 East 89th Street; at the ESPN Zone at 1472 Broadway at 42nd Street or check in on race day, June 16th.
For additional information on prostate cancer, call the National Prostate Cancer Coalition at 202-463-9455 or Cap CURE at 1-800-757-2873.