ATLANTA – At a gathering of renowned cancer experts, Dr. Shafiq A. Khan, director of the Center for Cancer Research and Therapeutic Development at Clark Atlanta University, said Monday that, despite what you may hear, there should be no controversy over prostate cancer screening, especially in Black males.
“Our stand is very simple: early detection saves lives,” Khan said. “It’s very important for us to know. It’s our basic right to know our health status. If I have a cancer, I need to know that. And if PSA tests can help me know that, then I need to know that.”
As elementary as that may sound, there is disagreement in the medical community as to whether prostate cancer screening in men actually does more harm than good. For example, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recently issued an opinion in the American College of Physicians’ Annals of Internal Medicine that there is insufficient evidence to prove that prostate cancer screenings are helpful and may actually cause pain, discomfort and erectile dysfunction.
It was one of the main topics discussed during Clark Atlanta University’s Sixth Annual National Symposium on Prostate Cancer, a two-day conference, which ends today. Students, faculty and researchers from colleges and universities around the country gathered at the Thomas W. Cole Jr. Research Center for Science and Technology to hear from some of the nation’s most renowned experts on prostate cancer.
“I think this is probably the only conference of its kind in the country that focuses on prostate cancer,” Khan said. “Not just the biology, but also the educational part of it and also the community part of it.”
“Our center is focused on prostate cancer and its impact on African and African-American communities,” Khan said. “So we bring all these people here to listen and discuss what’s going on. We started six years ago as a small meeting. It has now turned into a national symposium, and this is the only kind of national symposium on prostate cancer that we know of.”
Attendees have heard from luminaries such as Dr. David Satcher, the former Surgeon General and president emeritus of the Morehouse School of Medicine, and Dr. Michael Freeman of Harvard University.
