Prostate cancer: what are the right reflexes to have?

Clément Perruche 4:53 p.m., November 25, 2021, modified at 5:25 p.m., November 25, 2021

INTERVIEW

While Movember, the movement intended to alert on prostate cancer, is soon coming to an end, "Bienfait pour vous" received this Thursday Marc Galiano, urologist in Paris and author of

with journalist Etienne Rica

This doctor explained to the microphone of Europe 1 what were the reflexes to have to prevent and better manage prostate cancer.

Because very often, prevention is the key to a good cure.

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Consult more regularly

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men. We are talking about 50,000 new cases per year. Colon cancer and lung cancer follow. The problem with male cancers is that there is often a delay in the medical management of patients. "Most consultation appointments, even today, are taken by wives or companions. It goes back to childhood when young girls, from 13 years old, are medicalized and boys, not. Very often, we see patients of 60 years who have never seen a doctor ", regrets the urologist.

This delay in taking charge can have harmful consequences.

"A small cancer can almost always be cured. This is prevention: it is necessary to consult", explains Marc Galiano, who would like all boys to be followed by a urologist from puberty.

Regarding prostate cancer, the urologist explains that one should not be passive and wait for clinical signs to appear before going to consult.

"A cancer that is talked about is already a cancer that has a certain volume."

The only solution: prevention, once again. 

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Genetic and blood screening

Obviously, some people are more at risk than others. Especially West Indian men, because of exposure to chlordecone, a chemical that was widespread in banana plantations until the 1990s. Patients with a direct history of breast cancer in female relatives or of prostate cancer in men are also more at risk. In this case, it is possible to carry out genetic screening, a "routine" which makes it possible to launch "surveillance much earlier", explains Marc Galiano.

This monitoring can also involve a blood test and a PSA assay, the only marker available to medicine. "From the age of 55, we do an individual screening. What matters is not so much the dosage of the rate, it is the rate of doubling of the rate. The shorter this time, the more it alerts us", explains the guest from Europe 1. The rectal examination is no longer an obligatory passage for men wanting to be screened, in particular because "detecting small cancers on the finger is hardly possible".

In addition to prevention, certain actions help reduce the risk of prostate cancer.

In particular ejaculation, which allows "to purge the whole system", according to the urologist.

Certain foods, such as pomegranate juice, cooked tomatoes, flax seeds, or soybeans can also prevent cancer.

But that's not all.

"Prostate cancer is 50% genetics, 50% environment," recalls Marc Galiano.