June 5, 2025 • 14 mins
Dr. Avi Baskin joins us to discuss President Biden's aggressive prostate cancer diagnosis and what it means for men's health screening practices. We explore how prostate cancer can grow silently for years before symptoms appear and why screening recommendations matter.
• Screening vs. diagnostic testing for prostate cancer explained
• How the President's diagnosis aligns with typical presentation patterns among older men
• Current screening guidelines and debates about when to stop screening
• Treatment options for metastatic prostate cancer and potential outcomes
• The increased aggressiveness of prostate cancer diagnosed in older men
• Why early baseline screening starting at age 40-45 is recommended for high-risk groups
• The importance of not waiting for symptoms to appear before getting tested
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#presidentbiden
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Grantley Martelly (00:11):
This is the Real Health Black Men podcast,
where we empower men to takecontrol of their health.
We provide vital informationand build community support.
Join us as we discusseverything from major health
challenges to mental wellness tophysical fitness.
So if you're ready to level upyour health and your life,
you're in the right place.
(00:31):
Let's get started.
So welcome back to Real HealthBlack Men podcast.
We've all heard about PresidentBiden's diagnosis of aggressive
(00:52):
prostate cancer and I wanted todo a short episode just for my
listeners, to just try toexplain what's going on, see if
we can get a perspective from aprofessional.
And today I have Dr Avi Baskinfrom Vanderbilt University
Medical Center and he's joiningus to help us have this
discussion.
So, dr Avi, welcome, and couldyou just introduce yourself?
(01:14):
Tell us a little bit aboutyourself and we'll get into the
discussion.
Yeah, thanks so much for havingme Again.
I'm Dr Baskin.
I'm finishing up a urologiconcology fellowship at
Vanderbilt University MedicalCenter.
And I'm Dr Baskin.
I'm finishing up a urologiconcology fellowship at
Vanderbilt University MedicalCenter and I'm starting on
faculty as a urologic oncologistat University of California in
Irvine, so really excited to behere today.
A lot of the work that I'vebeen doing during my fellowship
(01:37):
focuses around prostate cancer,both in terms of long-term
outcomes, of how patients doover time, but also in terms of
study on treatment regret.
So I'm really excited to behere and this is an opportunity
just to bring more awareness tothe issue.
Thank you, dr Baskin.
So we've all heard aboutPresident Biden's diagnosis with
(01:57):
stage four aggressive prostatecancer and, to us as laypeople
and as former patients, wewonder how could the President
of the United States with thebest medical team, the best
medical science, access to thebest medical care, go from us
being told a few years ago,after his medical, that he was
in reasonable health for a manat his age, and now, four months
(02:20):
after he leaves office, we'rebeing told he has stage four
aggressive prostate cancer?
Could you help us to understandhow something like this could
happen, and is it normal or isit abnormal for things like
these to happen in this area ofprostate cancer or any cancers?
Yeah Well, it's definitelysurprising news and I think you
know it's very unfortunate, butthe reality of prostate cancer
(02:42):
is actually isn't uncommon.
So for men who are over 75,about 20% of them, when
diagnosed with prostate cancer,are diagnosed with metastatic
disease.
Prostate cancer is challengingbecause it can grow silently, no
symptoms, for years and if apatient isn't screened, it
definitely can be missed.
It's important that when wetalk about President Biden and
(03:02):
how he was diagnosed, we talkabout president biden and how he
was diagnosed.
We talk about the differencefirst between what a screening
test is and what a diagnostictest is.
A screening test that we mayhave heard of as prostate
specific antigen for prostatecancer.
It identifies individuals atrisk of the condition.
A diagnostic test is used toconfirm or rule out a suspicious
diagnosis when a person hassymptoms of a disease.
(03:23):
From what I've been able tofind online and what's been
reported, joe Biden last had ascreening test for PSA for
prostate cancer in 2014 when hewas 71.
The US Preventative Task ForceService recommends stopping
prostate cancer screening at age70, so that would be in line
overall from what we know, asphysicians had followed those
nationally recommendedguidelines.
So that would be in lineOverall.
From what we know, hisphysicians had followed those
(03:44):
nationally recommendedguidelines Back in May.
It was reported then that hehad difficulty urinating,
leading to a prostate exam wherethey found the prostate cancer.
So he wasn't necessarilyscreened for prostate cancer, he
was actually, it was found on adiagnostic test, which is how
it can happen.
And going back to what wetalked about at the beginning,
you know, unfortunately prostatecancer does present like this a
lot.
So you know, unfortunatelyprostate cancer does present
(04:04):
like this a lot.
So you know, while it seemsabrupt that a person who had a
physical a couple of years agopurport to be in great health,
you know is our president withpresumed the best medical care
and medical advice out there,it's actually not an uncommon
story that we see that sort ofbrings a little bit more sense
to it.
It seems like just missed him bya year, right that age 71, 70
cut off.
There's a lot of otherurological issues that men could
(04:29):
have that are not prostatecancer, like difficulty
urinating.
Dr. Avi Baskin (04:31):
Yeah, and you know that's the challenge with
prostate cancer.
I think as we age, men'sprostates get bigger, and when
men's prostates get bigger theycan cause problems with
urinating.
Sometimes prostate cancer canbe associated with those
problems, but sometimes you haveprostate cancer growing and you
have no symptoms whatsoever,and that's kind of one of the
challenges that we face.
(04:51):
Just because a patient may haveproblems with urination doesn't
necessarily indicate prostatecancer.
It can be a host of otherthings, but we're trying to
parse out what to be worriedabout and what not to be worried
about.
Grantley Martelly (05:04):
So there are various thoughts you brought up
screening and there are variousschools of thoughts about
prostate cancer screening andmaybe you can enlighten us a
little bit about this.
There was an article in theEconomist recently about should
men be screened for prostatecancer, citing some British
studies about maybeover-screening, over-treatment,
but yet still looking at peopleof high probability.
(05:26):
That prostate cancer HealthEducation Network.
They wrote an article.
Their president, who is a24-year prostate cancer survivor
, was writing it to say we needmore screening for men because
we keep missing these things.
So there seems to be someconflicts in the medical
community about the screeningprocess and when it should and
(05:48):
when it should not be done.
Dr. Avi Baskin (05:50):
Yeah, screening is definitely a complex and
controversial topic.
I think President Biden's casespecifically opens up the debate
about not only whether toscreen but whether to stop
screening, because in his case,as far as we know, he was
screened for prostate cancer inhis younger years and they
stopped around age 70 or age 71.
The question is in my mind isyou know what happens when a
(06:16):
person who was older than 70 oran older man gets diagnosed with
prostate cancer?
How aggressive is that prostatecancer?
We know from multiple studiesthat men who are diagnosed with
prostate cancer at age 70 aremore likely to die of prostate
cancer than men diagnosed withsimilar prostate cancer types
greater stage at younger ages.
Even in low-grade prostatecancer or low-risk prostate
(06:36):
cancer, the gene expressionprofiles of older men exhibit
more aggressive features thanyounger men.
So the question in my mind isyou know when do we stop
screening?
It's recommended in theguidelines the United States
Preventative Service Task Force,the AOA guidelines to stop at
age 70.
We have to worry about apercentage of men who are going
to live longer like PresidentBiden, and maybe for those men
(06:57):
extend it.
You know, maybe I'm biased as aurologist, but in my opinion
it's worth to screen into the70s on a case-by-case basis,
discussing the other risks andbenefits, and what we really
have to focus on is notnecessarily stopping the
screening, but it's once a manis screened and that leads to
potential workup, invasivetesting for biopsies and getting
a diagnosis or thinking abouttreatment options.
(07:18):
How do we stop over diagnosisand over treatment after the
screening point so that we getthe full advantage of screening
and preventing deaths that way,but also limiting all the side
effects that come with potentialtreatment options?
Grantley Martelly (07:32):
What are some of the potential treatment
options available for a personwho's been diagnosed with the
kind of cancer that PresidentBiden has, and what are the
potential outcomes for thosedifferent kinds of treatments?
Dr. Avi Baskin (07:45):
So for systemic disease or metastatic prostate
cancer, you are going tobasically have therapy that it's
basically hormone therapy thatdecreases the testosterone all
the way to zero.
There's also certain types ofchemotherapy or other targeted
therapies for metastaticprostate cancer that may be
available, as well as,potentially, radiation to the
(08:06):
prostate for certain types oftherapy that can be used in
tandem.
The bottom line here is there'sgoing to be multiple different
types of therapy that will beavailable to President Biden.
It just depends on somefeatures.
So the first thing is and whatwe really don't know is they
said he's had metastaticprostate cancer and it's gone to
the bone.
There are various types.
If he has a lot of prostatecancer, meaning a lot of
(08:28):
different sites of metastases,he may have different options
compared to someone who has justa few.
So those details so far areunknown.
And then when we talk aboutwhat is he looking like in terms
of prognosis, it really depends.
Looking on the clinical trialdata for someone with metastatic
prostate cancer and as highvolume disease spread to
multiple parts of the body, youcould be looking at kind of a
(08:51):
medium survival of three to fiveyears for someone with just
metastatic prostate cancerthat's maybe gone to only one
bone or a couple of differentsites, you may be into the six
to eight year range, so itreally depends.
It's important to note, though,that for men who present with
metastatic prostate cancer likeJoe Biden, kind of out of the
blue, some men do live 10 plusyears on therapy, so it really
(09:13):
depends on the details of it, ofhis specific diagnosis and
medical history, to understandexactly what his prognosis will
be.
Grantley Martelly (09:22):
I think one of the things in that, then, is
that with modern treatmentbecause one of the reasons for
this podcast is to help men tosee that treatments are changing
all the time, science ischanging all the time we're not
locked in.
So don't be afraid, becausethere could be potential
treatments out there that arecoming available that helps you
(09:44):
to live longer and live a verygood life.
Dr. Avi Baskin (09:47):
Yeah, it really is dependent on the cancer type
and there's a lot of new.
You know there's, like youmentioned, a lot of new,
different treatment options.
You know drugs being approved,and then there's new imaging
tests and then there's also newways to prognosticate, meaning
looking at tissue and saying,hey, is it more or less
aggressive?
And those things have all kindof come into play.
So what I'd really recommend isI know it's prostate cancer.
(10:10):
It affects one in eight men.
I think everyone has someonewho's been touched by it.
But it's really all aboutseeing a urologist, seeing a
medical oncologist,understanding what the options
are, because a lot of times,even in Joe Biden's case, I
can't speak, obviously, tospecifics, but you know, at his
age, prostate cancer still mightnot be the thing that limits
his overall lifespan.
So it's really important to getin and get medical care and
(10:32):
understand, you know, what youroptions are.
Grantley Martelly (10:34):
Well, that brings us directly to our last
questions is what can we learnfrom this as men, and what is
the discussions that we need tobe having with our doctors and
with our families about prostatecancer?
Dr. Avi Baskin (10:47):
For everyone.
Really, what I'd recommend isgetting screened, and getting
screened early, and it reallydepends on your individual risk
factors.
You know, black men, those whohave had family members with
prostate cancer or aggressiveprostate cancer, probably should
get screened early.
The American UrologicAssociation recommends screening
at 40 to 45 years of age.
(11:07):
What you can do is get a screentest early and see where your
baseline is.
If it's low, less than one,you're in a pretty good position
for the longer term.
It doesn't mean you've got toget screened every year, but
getting that baseline can bereally important.
So what I'd recommend istalking to your doctor, you know
, talking to your friends, youknow the support groups that I
mentioned are really important,you know, get a baseline, know
where you're at and then, youknow, get on some sort of
(11:30):
schedule.
Again, it doesn't have to beevery year the AUA recommends
every two to four years but it'sreally important because, as we
saw in Joe Biden's case,sometimes with prostate cancer
you really don't know at alluntil it's spread.
It can be really silent andhave no symptoms for a long time
.
So I think it's kind of areminder in this case don't wait
for symptoms.
Get screened and be thoughtfulabout it, because getting
(11:52):
screened doesn't commit you toany sort of treatment, doesn't
commit you to anything down theline, but at least you have the
information to go off of.
Grantley Martelly (11:59):
If you don't have information, you don't know
what to talk about.
Right Screen gives you abaseline, you can have the
conversation, but if you have nodata, what are you going to do?
So I came across this saying inwrapping this up that says
early screening is still thebest defense against prostate
cancer.
Early screening is still thebest defense against prostate
(12:20):
cancer.
Because even as in my case, youwere talking about pain and
symptoms.
I had no symptoms.
Besides the fact that my PSAwent up four times in succession
.
That's the only thing I had.
If I waited for pain.
Many men said to me Grantley,did you have any pain?
I said, if you wait for pain,what's going on inside of you is
already changing.
So I asked my doctor to do thetest so that I had the baseline,
(12:44):
so that I can have anintelligent conversation with
him about what I need to do.
Dr. Avi Baskin (12:49):
Yeah, no, absolutely.
I mean, unfortunately, thenature of it is that, like you
said, if you're waiting forsymptoms and pain, you know
realistically that's going to befar down the disease
progression, meaning you mayhave already had metastases, you
may have already had it goingthrough the prostate to other
kind of local areas.
The other thing that I think isimportant to note is I think
patients are rightfullyconcerned about a prostate
(13:12):
biopsy and that it's painful andthe recovery takes a little bit
of time.
There's a lot of differenttests that have now been
developed that you can do afteryou have a PSA test to try to
differentiate blood tests, urinetests, mri scans of the
prostate, just to look and seebefore you commit yourself to
biopsies.
There's a lot that's out thereand I think getting the
information and knowing that isvery important.
Grantley Martelly (13:36):
Thank you, Dr Baskin, for coming in today and
enlightening us about this.
I really appreciate it.
Dr. Avi Baskin (13:42):
Thank you so much for having me.
Grantley Martelly (13:47):
Write us at realhealthblackmen at gmailcom.
Realhealthblackmen at gmailcom.
To support this podcast, go tobuymeacoffeecom forward, slash
RealHealthBlackMen,buymeacoffeecom.
(14:10):
Realhealthblackmen.
And to become a corporatesponsor, send us an email.
This is the Real Health Black Men podcast,
where we empower men to takecontrol of their health.
We provide vital informationand build community support.
Join us as we discusseverything from major health
challenges to mental wellness tophysical fitness.
So if you're ready to level upyour health and your life,
you're in the right place.
(00:31):
Let's get started.
So welcome back to Real HealthBlack Men podcast.
We've all heard about PresidentBiden's diagnosis of aggressive
(00:52):
prostate cancer and I wanted todo a short episode just for my
listeners, to just try toexplain what's going on, see if
we can get a perspective from aprofessional.
And today I have Dr Avi Baskinfrom Vanderbilt University
Medical Center and he's joiningus to help us have this
discussion.
So, dr Avi, welcome, and couldyou just introduce yourself?
(01:14):
Tell us a little bit aboutyourself and we'll get into the
discussion.
Yeah, thanks so much for havingme Again.
I'm Dr Baskin.
I'm finishing up a urologiconcology fellowship at
Vanderbilt University MedicalCenter.
And I'm Dr Baskin.
I'm finishing up a urologiconcology fellowship at
Vanderbilt University MedicalCenter and I'm starting on
faculty as a urologic oncologistat University of California in
Irvine, so really excited to behere today.
A lot of the work that I'vebeen doing during my fellowship
(01:37):
focuses around prostate cancer,both in terms of long-term
outcomes, of how patients doover time, but also in terms of
study on treatment regret.
So I'm really excited to behere and this is an opportunity
just to bring more awareness tothe issue.
Thank you, dr Baskin.
So we've all heard aboutPresident Biden's diagnosis with
(01:57):
stage four aggressive prostatecancer and, to us as laypeople
and as former patients, wewonder how could the President
of the United States with thebest medical team, the best
medical science, access to thebest medical care, go from us
being told a few years ago,after his medical, that he was
in reasonable health for a manat his age, and now, four months
(02:20):
after he leaves office, we'rebeing told he has stage four
aggressive prostate cancer?
Could you help us to understandhow something like this could
happen, and is it normal or isit abnormal for things like
these to happen in this area ofprostate cancer or any cancers?
Yeah Well, it's definitelysurprising news and I think you
know it's very unfortunate, butthe reality of prostate cancer
(02:42):
is actually isn't uncommon.
So for men who are over 75,about 20% of them, when
diagnosed with prostate cancer,are diagnosed with metastatic
disease.
Prostate cancer is challengingbecause it can grow silently, no
symptoms, for years and if apatient isn't screened, it
definitely can be missed.
It's important that when wetalk about President Biden and
(03:02):
how he was diagnosed, we talkabout president biden and how he
was diagnosed.
We talk about the differencefirst between what a screening
test is and what a diagnostictest is.
A screening test that we mayhave heard of as prostate
specific antigen for prostatecancer.
It identifies individuals atrisk of the condition.
A diagnostic test is used toconfirm or rule out a suspicious
diagnosis when a person hassymptoms of a disease.
(03:23):
From what I've been able tofind online and what's been
reported, joe Biden last had ascreening test for PSA for
prostate cancer in 2014 when hewas 71.
The US Preventative Task ForceService recommends stopping
prostate cancer screening at age70, so that would be in line
overall from what we know, asphysicians had followed those
nationally recommendedguidelines.
So that would be in lineOverall.
From what we know, hisphysicians had followed those
(03:44):
nationally recommendedguidelines Back in May.
It was reported then that hehad difficulty urinating,
leading to a prostate exam wherethey found the prostate cancer.
So he wasn't necessarilyscreened for prostate cancer, he
was actually, it was found on adiagnostic test, which is how
it can happen.
And going back to what wetalked about at the beginning,
you know, unfortunately prostatecancer does present like this a
lot.
So you know, unfortunatelyprostate cancer does present
(04:04):
like this a lot.
So you know, while it seemsabrupt that a person who had a
physical a couple of years agopurport to be in great health,
you know is our president withpresumed the best medical care
and medical advice out there,it's actually not an uncommon
story that we see that sort ofbrings a little bit more sense
to it.
It seems like just missed him bya year, right that age 71, 70
cut off.
There's a lot of otherurological issues that men could
(04:29):
have that are not prostatecancer, like difficulty
urinating.
Dr. Avi Baskin (04:31):
Yeah, and you know that's the challenge with
prostate cancer.
I think as we age, men'sprostates get bigger, and when
men's prostates get bigger theycan cause problems with
urinating.
Sometimes prostate cancer canbe associated with those
problems, but sometimes you haveprostate cancer growing and you
have no symptoms whatsoever,and that's kind of one of the
challenges that we face.
(04:51):
Just because a patient may haveproblems with urination doesn't
necessarily indicate prostatecancer.
It can be a host of otherthings, but we're trying to
parse out what to be worriedabout and what not to be worried
about.
Grantley Martelly (05:04):
So there are various thoughts you brought up
screening and there are variousschools of thoughts about
prostate cancer screening andmaybe you can enlighten us a
little bit about this.
There was an article in theEconomist recently about should
men be screened for prostatecancer, citing some British
studies about maybeover-screening, over-treatment,
but yet still looking at peopleof high probability.
(05:26):
That prostate cancer HealthEducation Network.
They wrote an article.
Their president, who is a24-year prostate cancer survivor
, was writing it to say we needmore screening for men because
we keep missing these things.
So there seems to be someconflicts in the medical
community about the screeningprocess and when it should and
(05:48):
when it should not be done.
Dr. Avi Baskin (05:50):
Yeah, screening is definitely a complex and
controversial topic.
I think President Biden's casespecifically opens up the debate
about not only whether toscreen but whether to stop
screening, because in his case,as far as we know, he was
screened for prostate cancer inhis younger years and they
stopped around age 70 or age 71.
The question is in my mind isyou know what happens when a
(06:16):
person who was older than 70 oran older man gets diagnosed with
prostate cancer?
How aggressive is that prostatecancer?
We know from multiple studiesthat men who are diagnosed with
prostate cancer at age 70 aremore likely to die of prostate
cancer than men diagnosed withsimilar prostate cancer types
greater stage at younger ages.
Even in low-grade prostatecancer or low-risk prostate
(06:36):
cancer, the gene expressionprofiles of older men exhibit
more aggressive features thanyounger men.
So the question in my mind isyou know when do we stop
screening?
It's recommended in theguidelines the United States
Preventative Service Task Force,the AOA guidelines to stop at
age 70.
We have to worry about apercentage of men who are going
to live longer like PresidentBiden, and maybe for those men
(06:57):
extend it.
You know, maybe I'm biased as aurologist, but in my opinion
it's worth to screen into the70s on a case-by-case basis,
discussing the other risks andbenefits, and what we really
have to focus on is notnecessarily stopping the
screening, but it's once a manis screened and that leads to
potential workup, invasivetesting for biopsies and getting
a diagnosis or thinking abouttreatment options.
(07:18):
How do we stop over diagnosisand over treatment after the
screening point so that we getthe full advantage of screening
and preventing deaths that way,but also limiting all the side
effects that come with potentialtreatment options?
Grantley Martelly (07:32):
What are some of the potential treatment
options available for a personwho's been diagnosed with the
kind of cancer that PresidentBiden has, and what are the
potential outcomes for thosedifferent kinds of treatments?
Dr. Avi Baskin (07:45):
So for systemic disease or metastatic prostate
cancer, you are going tobasically have therapy that it's
basically hormone therapy thatdecreases the testosterone all
the way to zero.
There's also certain types ofchemotherapy or other targeted
therapies for metastaticprostate cancer that may be
available, as well as,potentially, radiation to the
(08:06):
prostate for certain types oftherapy that can be used in
tandem.
The bottom line here is there'sgoing to be multiple different
types of therapy that will beavailable to President Biden.
It just depends on somefeatures.
So the first thing is and whatwe really don't know is they
said he's had metastaticprostate cancer and it's gone to
the bone.
There are various types.
If he has a lot of prostatecancer, meaning a lot of
(08:28):
different sites of metastases,he may have different options
compared to someone who has justa few.
So those details so far areunknown.
And then when we talk aboutwhat is he looking like in terms
of prognosis, it really depends.
Looking on the clinical trialdata for someone with metastatic
prostate cancer and as highvolume disease spread to
multiple parts of the body, youcould be looking at kind of a
(08:51):
medium survival of three to fiveyears for someone with just
metastatic prostate cancerthat's maybe gone to only one
bone or a couple of differentsites, you may be into the six
to eight year range, so itreally depends.
It's important to note, though,that for men who present with
metastatic prostate cancer likeJoe Biden, kind of out of the
blue, some men do live 10 plusyears on therapy, so it really
(09:13):
depends on the details of it, ofhis specific diagnosis and
medical history, to understandexactly what his prognosis will
be.
Grantley Martelly (09:22):
I think one of the things in that, then, is
that with modern treatmentbecause one of the reasons for
this podcast is to help men tosee that treatments are changing
all the time, science ischanging all the time we're not
locked in.
So don't be afraid, becausethere could be potential
treatments out there that arecoming available that helps you
(09:44):
to live longer and live a verygood life.
Dr. Avi Baskin (09:47):
Yeah, it really is dependent on the cancer type
and there's a lot of new.
You know there's, like youmentioned, a lot of new,
different treatment options.
You know drugs being approved,and then there's new imaging
tests and then there's also newways to prognosticate, meaning
looking at tissue and saying,hey, is it more or less
aggressive?
And those things have all kindof come into play.
So what I'd really recommend isI know it's prostate cancer.
(10:10):
It affects one in eight men.
I think everyone has someonewho's been touched by it.
But it's really all aboutseeing a urologist, seeing a
medical oncologist,understanding what the options
are, because a lot of times,even in Joe Biden's case, I
can't speak, obviously, tospecifics, but you know, at his
age, prostate cancer still mightnot be the thing that limits
his overall lifespan.
So it's really important to getin and get medical care and
(10:32):
understand, you know, what youroptions are.
Grantley Martelly (10:34):
Well, that brings us directly to our last
questions is what can we learnfrom this as men, and what is
the discussions that we need tobe having with our doctors and
with our families about prostatecancer?
Dr. Avi Baskin (10:47):
For everyone.
Really, what I'd recommend isgetting screened, and getting
screened early, and it reallydepends on your individual risk
factors.
You know, black men, those whohave had family members with
prostate cancer or aggressiveprostate cancer, probably should
get screened early.
The American UrologicAssociation recommends screening
at 40 to 45 years of age.
(11:07):
What you can do is get a screentest early and see where your
baseline is.
If it's low, less than one,you're in a pretty good position
for the longer term.
It doesn't mean you've got toget screened every year, but
getting that baseline can bereally important.
So what I'd recommend istalking to your doctor, you know
, talking to your friends, youknow the support groups that I
mentioned are really important,you know, get a baseline, know
where you're at and then, youknow, get on some sort of
(11:30):
schedule.
Again, it doesn't have to beevery year the AUA recommends
every two to four years but it'sreally important because, as we
saw in Joe Biden's case,sometimes with prostate cancer
you really don't know at alluntil it's spread.
It can be really silent andhave no symptoms for a long time
.
So I think it's kind of areminder in this case don't wait
for symptoms.
Get screened and be thoughtfulabout it, because getting
(11:52):
screened doesn't commit you toany sort of treatment, doesn't
commit you to anything down theline, but at least you have the
information to go off of.
Grantley Martelly (11:59):
If you don't have information, you don't know
what to talk about.
Right Screen gives you abaseline, you can have the
conversation, but if you have nodata, what are you going to do?
So I came across this saying inwrapping this up that says
early screening is still thebest defense against prostate
cancer.
Early screening is still thebest defense against prostate
(12:20):
cancer.
Because even as in my case, youwere talking about pain and
symptoms.
I had no symptoms.
Besides the fact that my PSAwent up four times in succession
.
That's the only thing I had.
If I waited for pain.
Many men said to me Grantley,did you have any pain?
I said, if you wait for pain,what's going on inside of you is
already changing.
So I asked my doctor to do thetest so that I had the baseline,
(12:44):
so that I can have anintelligent conversation with
him about what I need to do.
Dr. Avi Baskin (12:49):
Yeah, no, absolutely.
I mean, unfortunately, thenature of it is that, like you
said, if you're waiting forsymptoms and pain, you know
realistically that's going to befar down the disease
progression, meaning you mayhave already had metastases, you
may have already had it goingthrough the prostate to other
kind of local areas.
The other thing that I think isimportant to note is I think
patients are rightfullyconcerned about a prostate
(13:12):
biopsy and that it's painful andthe recovery takes a little bit
of time.
There's a lot of differenttests that have now been
developed that you can do afteryou have a PSA test to try to
differentiate blood tests, urinetests, mri scans of the
prostate, just to look and seebefore you commit yourself to
biopsies.
There's a lot that's out thereand I think getting the
information and knowing that isvery important.
Grantley Martelly (13:36):
Thank you, Dr Baskin, for coming in today and
enlightening us about this.
I really appreciate it.
Dr. Avi Baskin (13:42):
Thank you so much for having me.
Grantley Martelly (13:47):
Write us at realhealthblackmen at gmailcom.
Realhealthblackmen at gmailcom.
To support this podcast, go tobuymeacoffeecom forward, slash
RealHealthBlackMen,buymeacoffeecom.
(14:10):
Realhealthblackmen.
And to become a corporatesponsor, send us an email.
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