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June is Men’s Health Month

The Hampton Roads Prostate Health Forum is pleased to launch our annual Paint the Region Blue for Prostate Cancer and Father’s Day Rally Against Prostate Cancer campaigns.

Paint the Region Blue starts on June 1st and ends on June 30th. During this period we ask men, women and children to wear light blue ribbons for prostate cancer to bring attention to this cause. We want the light blue ribbons to be as recognizable for prostate cancer as pink is for breast cancer. June is Men’s Health Month.

The Father’s Day Rally Against Prostate Cancer occurs on Father’s Day. Let us take information about prostate cancer to our communities of faith, places of worship, community at large, social & civic groups, and other places where people gather to help reduce suffering and dying in our region from prostate cancer.

For Father’s Day, any prayer that you or your faith prefers is appropriate. However, if you do not have a community of faith the following is provided for your convenience:

“We pray for all those suffering with prostate cancer and remember those who were taken from us by this disease. May your healing presence give strength and sustenance to their families. Help us especially young men, to be vigilant in caring for our earthly bodies. Bless those survivors who have been cured of this cancer. We also call upon you to provide insight to those in the forefront of research as they seek to find a cure for prostate cancer. In Your name we pray.”

The Hampton Roads Prostate Health Forum is also pleased to announce that it will soon be serving as an Advocacy Partner for “The Metastatic Prostate Cancer Project”. This project is part of Count Me In (JoinCountMeIn.org), a nonprofit organization that brings together patients and researchers to accelerate discoveries in cancer research.

This Advocacy role is in addition to the roles we have with the RESPOND and COMPPARE projects shown below.

RESPOND is a first-of-its kind national study of Prostate Cancer in men of African Ancestry: Defining the Roles of Genetics, Tumor Markers and Social Stress. 

RESPOND will be one of the largest studies ever to look at the underlying factors and reasons that put African American men at higher risk for prostate cancer. Over the next five years, 10,000 African American men with prostate cancer will be recruited.


The RESPOND Study is supported by the National Cancer Institute and the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) under grant number CA214253, awarded to the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. NIH is providing 96% of the total funding ($25.5 million) and the Prostate Cancer Foundation is providing 4% of the funding ($1 million).


The Study PI is Dr. Christopher Haiman. Others involved at the top include Dr. Ann Hamilton and Denise Modjeski, M.S. (RespondStudy@med.usc.edu) Phone: 888.425.0521. There are multiple research sites across the country.

Hampton Roads Prostate Health Forum strongly encourages all African American men who have been diagnosed with prostate cancer in the U.S. any time in the last 8 years to learn more about this study and participate, if you possibly can.

There is a new study called COMPPARE. It stands for “A Prospective COMparative Study of Outcomes with Proton and Photon RAdiation in PRostate CancEr. Charlie Hill, President and Co-founder of the Forum has been asked to help recruit African American men for the study in Hampton Roads. Mr. Hill is a prostate cancer patient and a WARRIOR who was treated with surgery and photon radiation. He is also a COMPPARE Study Stakeholder and a member of the Study’s Minority Engagement Group. Please visit http://comppare.org for more information.

KNOWLEDGE, FAITH AND EARLY DETECTION MATTER MOST 

KNOWLEDGE:

•  Early stage prostate cancer that has not spread has no symptoms! 
•  A PSA test may indicate prostate cancer early before it has spread. 
•  The digital rectal exam (DRE) may also indicate prostate cancer before it has spread.

FAITH:
People of faith have felt the need to express their experience with and belief in a much higher power especially in times of trouble such as learning they have cancer. Proclaiming the good news seems to serve most cancer patients well as it helps with their psychosocial and spiritual well being.

EARLY DETECTION:

•  Early treatment of prostate cancer may help some men avoid major problems.
•  Early treatment of prostate cancer may help some men live longer.

Copyright © 2019 Hampton Roads Prostate Health Forum, All rights reserved.

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