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Treating Prostate Cancer

Aired December 16, 2003 - 11:32   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Secretary of State Colin Powell is recovering from prostate surgery this morning at Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington. Doctors removed the gland in a two-hour operation. They said Powell's cancer has not spread, and they expect the secretary will make a full recovery.
Still, the secretary will work a reduced schedule for some time to come. Prostate cancer is the most common cancer for American men. African-Americans have the highest prostate cancer rate. Doctors hope a high profile patient like Colin Powell will raise awareness.

Dr. John Petros joins us. He is urologist at the Emory University School of Medicine here in Atlanta.

Dr. Petros, thanks for being with us.

DR. JOHN PETROS, UROLOGIST: Thank you.

KAGAN: You look at that profile, you look at Colin Powell, 66 years old, African-American. Most typical patient?

PETROS: Very typical patient. As you mentioned, African- Americans are a high-risk group, and so we see many of them with prostate cancer, unfortunately.

KAGAN: We've heard that they removed his entire prostate gland. It seems from men that I know that've been diagnosed with prostate cancer, there's not one way to go about battling the disease. They usually have a number of options in front of them.

PETROS: There are many options. And of course, this is a option for men in which it was caught in time. The other main treatment would be radiation, and they're roughly equivalent. But for men with more advanced diseases, these aren't options, but this should render a cure.

KAGAN: And what about prostate cancer? I hear many men that are diagnosed with it, they die with it, not from it. So it can tend to be a slow growing cancer.

PETROS: It can be a very slow-growing cancer, and still, it's the second most common cause of cancer deaths in American men. And we know that if we catch it early enough, we can cure it.

KAGAN: That's the key, is early diagnosis.

PETROS: Absolutely.

KAGAN: Do they know why, or do you know why it does tend to hit African-American men at a higher rate?

PETROS: No one really knows. But they think it's a combination of genetics susceptibility, and perhaps some environmental things as well, perhaps something in the diet or other exposures. But it's probably a combination of both.

KAGAN: How important is it for somebody like Colin Powell, not that you would wish cancer on him, but what kind of impact can he have on the population, in terms of awareness, and testing and early detection?

PETROS: Sure, Secretary Powell is already involved in raising awareness and screening for prostate cancer.

KAGAN: Interesting.

PETROS: Several years before he was diagnosed. So certainly, this type of high-profile case should raise men's awareness that screening can roughly double their chances of catching the cancer when it's curable.

KAGAN: And some of his early tests apparently didn't indicate that there might be prostate cancer. His doctors were fairly aggressive in continuing to test and look for a tumor. Is that typical?

PETROS: That's an important point, yes. It's not sufficient to simply have it tested once. You need to go back and have the blood test, the PSA, done at least every year.

KAGAN: One of the problems with it, is you hear the side effects of some of the surgery, impotence, bladder control -- these are not pleasant side effects that men want to have to deal with. How do you council your patients in getting around that, or dealing with that, and making that part of their lifestyle?

PETROS: Sure. The complications are real. But luckily, they're uncommon. And for almost all of them, we have very good treatments, so that the ones particularly that you mentioned, impotence and loss of urine, can be easily controlled treatments, and it's certainly much more beneficial than having an advanced case of prostate cancer, which is really quite a painful way to go.

KAGAN: Absolutely. Beats the alternative, as we say. Dr. John Petros, from Emory University. Doctor, thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule. We appreciate that.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired December 16, 2003 - 11:32   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Secretary of State Colin Powell is recovering from prostate surgery this morning at Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington. Doctors removed the gland in a two-hour operation. They said Powell's cancer has not spread, and they expect the secretary will make a full recovery.
Still, the secretary will work a reduced schedule for some time to come. Prostate cancer is the most common cancer for American men. African-Americans have the highest prostate cancer rate. Doctors hope a high profile patient like Colin Powell will raise awareness.

Dr. John Petros joins us. He is urologist at the Emory University School of Medicine here in Atlanta.

Dr. Petros, thanks for being with us.

DR. JOHN PETROS, UROLOGIST: Thank you.

KAGAN: You look at that profile, you look at Colin Powell, 66 years old, African-American. Most typical patient?

PETROS: Very typical patient. As you mentioned, African- Americans are a high-risk group, and so we see many of them with prostate cancer, unfortunately.

KAGAN: We've heard that they removed his entire prostate gland. It seems from men that I know that've been diagnosed with prostate cancer, there's not one way to go about battling the disease. They usually have a number of options in front of them.

PETROS: There are many options. And of course, this is a option for men in which it was caught in time. The other main treatment would be radiation, and they're roughly equivalent. But for men with more advanced diseases, these aren't options, but this should render a cure.

KAGAN: And what about prostate cancer? I hear many men that are diagnosed with it, they die with it, not from it. So it can tend to be a slow growing cancer.

PETROS: It can be a very slow-growing cancer, and still, it's the second most common cause of cancer deaths in American men. And we know that if we catch it early enough, we can cure it.

KAGAN: That's the key, is early diagnosis.

PETROS: Absolutely.

KAGAN: Do they know why, or do you know why it does tend to hit African-American men at a higher rate?

PETROS: No one really knows. But they think it's a combination of genetics susceptibility, and perhaps some environmental things as well, perhaps something in the diet or other exposures. But it's probably a combination of both.

KAGAN: How important is it for somebody like Colin Powell, not that you would wish cancer on him, but what kind of impact can he have on the population, in terms of awareness, and testing and early detection?

PETROS: Sure, Secretary Powell is already involved in raising awareness and screening for prostate cancer.

KAGAN: Interesting.

PETROS: Several years before he was diagnosed. So certainly, this type of high-profile case should raise men's awareness that screening can roughly double their chances of catching the cancer when it's curable.

KAGAN: And some of his early tests apparently didn't indicate that there might be prostate cancer. His doctors were fairly aggressive in continuing to test and look for a tumor. Is that typical?

PETROS: That's an important point, yes. It's not sufficient to simply have it tested once. You need to go back and have the blood test, the PSA, done at least every year.

KAGAN: One of the problems with it, is you hear the side effects of some of the surgery, impotence, bladder control -- these are not pleasant side effects that men want to have to deal with. How do you council your patients in getting around that, or dealing with that, and making that part of their lifestyle?

PETROS: Sure. The complications are real. But luckily, they're uncommon. And for almost all of them, we have very good treatments, so that the ones particularly that you mentioned, impotence and loss of urine, can be easily controlled treatments, and it's certainly much more beneficial than having an advanced case of prostate cancer, which is really quite a painful way to go.

KAGAN: Absolutely. Beats the alternative, as we say. Dr. John Petros, from Emory University. Doctor, thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule. We appreciate that.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com