The Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH), has advised men to see qualified medical doctors when they have urinary problems for proper diagnosis and treatment.

 

Professor James Edward Mensah, Head, Department of Surgery, said this was important because the hospital was receiving more patients with advanced stages of prostate cancer, which in most cases left them on lifetime medication and at worse, loss of lives. 

 

Prof Mensah, also the President, Ghana Association of Urological Surgeons, told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in an interview as part of the Prostate Cancer Awareness month in Accra. 

 

He said several prostate cancer cases that were referred to the KBTH came in their advanced stage and upon questioning some of the patients, they confirmed that they sought care early from herbal centres. 

He said men who reported to the right facility early and are offered the appropriate diagnosis and medication, stood a higher chance of getting a cure. ??? 

 

Prostate cancer is a cancer that occurs in the prostate. Prostate is a small walnut-shaped gland in males that produces the seminal fluid that nourishes and transports sperm. 

 

The disease in its early stage may cause no symptoms but in its advanced state one could experience trouble urinating, decreased force in the stream of urine, blood in the urine, blood in the semen, bone pain, loss of?weight without trying?and erectile dysfunction. 

 

The disease only kills when the cancer has spread to other parts of the body. 

 

Prof Mensah said that Prostate cancer was the second leading cause of male cancer deaths in Ghana and in KBTH alone, 20 men were diagnosed with the disease every week. 

 

He said for men with a higher risk of getting prostate cancer, which included African men and men with a family history of the disease, they should talk to their doctors at age 40 and above. 

 

This is necessary because such men may harbour the aggressive prostate cancer, which if not treated early would reach an advanced stage, he added. 

The Urologist explained that due to the similarities in prostate cancer and prostate enlargement, most of the herbal centres treated patients for prostate enlargement when the patients are suffering from prostate cancer, saying, "this is the challenge we face."

 

He noted that for a man to be diagnosed with prostate cancer, it was important to conduct a PSA blood test and biopsy to see where the cancer cells are, “but these herbal centres do not do that; they just start treatment.” 

 

 

GNA