Prostate cancer survivors, their spouses and supporters speak out against a killer disease.

Prostate cancer is the most common type of cancer among American men — one in every 10 men will develop prostate cancer in his lifetime. Yet most men cannot identify even one of the risk factors. While women have been very vocal about raising awareness as well as funds to help combat breast cancer — men, as a rule, have been reluctant to discuss their medical issues in public, especially an issue like prostate cancer that can have such devastating side effects.

But today, prostate cancer is just as prevalent as breast cancer. The American Cancer Society estimates that 180,400 new cases of prostate cancer and 182,800 cases of breast cancer were diagnosed in 2000. More alarming are the mortality estimates: 31, 900 prostate cancer deaths last year, and 40,000 breast cancer deaths. But there the similarities end. For the past two decades, women have done a tremendous job in alerting the nation to the dangers of breast cancer and the importance of early detection through self examination and a yearly mammogram, while, for the most part, men remain silent about prostate cancer. But that wall of silence is beginning to crumble, as more and more prostate cancer survivors, their spouses and supporters speak out against this killer disease.

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