Dr. Underwood is a long-time board member of IVUmed, an international nonprofit organization that works to improve urological care around the world. He traveled to Nigeria at his own expense to carry out this procedure, and he was assisted by two local Nigerian surgeons. By the end of Dr. Underwood’s visit, his Nigerian colleagues were ready to do the procedure themselves and are now starting to teach other local surgeons in their turn.

Treatment of prostate cancer is not currently covered by the national health insurance scheme, but recent data suggest that there are about 200 cases of prostate cancer for every 100,000 men. Ghanaian National Health Insurance already covers  care for women with breast cancer and Dr. Lydia Dsane-Selby, the Director of Clinical Audit, is quoted as suggesting that an amendment could be made in an ongoing review to include prostate cancer. “If the ministry or Parliament decides that this is a major health problem for Ghanaians, they will make the necessary amendment,” she added.

Dr. Adjei appealed to women to encourage their husbands, fathers, and other men to get tested annually for this form of cancer.

This article states that, “The blood test used to screen for prostate cancer saves very few lives. And it leads to risky and unnecessary treatments for large numbers of men, two studies have found.” And this statement is true … in America and Europe, where the two studies were carried out, and where PSA testing has been widespread for 20 years.

However, the situation in Africa is very different. For starters, the risk for prostate cancer among black Africans appears to be higher than it is even for African Americans. Second, most Africans have not been being tested for prostate cancer for the past 20 years. It would be completely inappropriate to apply the results of these two studies to men on the African continent at this time.

Ishmael works for the Ghanaian Institute for Security, Disaster & Emergency Studies (ISDES), and along the way his primary goal is to talk to the people of Ghana about emergency preparedness at a series of town hall-like meetings. However, since his own diagnosis and treatment for prostate cancer, Ishmael is also planning to use this walk to raise awareness about prostate cancer in Ghana, and we applaud him for his efforts.

If you want to follow Ishmael on his journey, you will be able to do so through the ISDES web site. Prostate Cancer Africa also plans to work with Ishmael to get information about how his prostate cancer awareness efforts go along the way.

You can support Ishmael on his walk by making a donation to ISDES or you can walk along with him for parts of his walk to raise awareness.

During a pilot phase of the study, a total of 408 men were screened, of whom 272 were normal, while 100 were requested to repeat the test after 6 months and 36 were referred to the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital for review. Following the review, 16 men were asked to undergo prostate biopsy and 8 of them have had the biopsy carried out. Three of these 8 were determined to have cancer of the prostate. Thus, in the pilot phase, at least 3/408 men screened or 7 men in 1,000 were diagnosed with prostate cancer.

At a minimum, for every African nation, the site now contains:

• Core information on prostate cancer in English, French, and Spanish as relevant
• Printable PDF files about prostate cancer risk and diagnosis
• Printable PDF files addressing the basics about treatment
• A section on the epidemiology of prostate cancer

Major items still to be addressed include translations of content into Arabic, Portuguese, and Swahili for relevant nations.