22 UROLOGY, URO-ONCOLOGY AND SEXOLOGY UPDATE In many rst world, high-income countries there is a problem with the overdiagnosis and overtreatment of prostate cancer.1 In South Africa, as with many low- and middle-income countries, the majority of men are reliant on public health facilities where the problem is one of underdiagnosis and under treatment.1 Inadequate availability of and insufcient access to screening have resulted in high rates of men presenting with locally advanced or advanced disease at public health facilities.2,3 The problem is further exacerbated by a lack of Department of Health guidelines or policies on prostate cancer for the public sector. The result is that many primary care public clinics will not screen men for prostate cancer unless they present with symptoms. Given that there are usually no symptoms of prostate cancer in the early stages, this in effect means that patients are expected to wait until they have incurable prostate cancer before they seek help. In an effort to address the underdiagnosis of prostate cancer, The Prostate Cancer Foundation has been partnering with its member companies to make screening more accessible to men. The rst initiative for the year was a PSA testing campaign run in collaboration with Astellas Pharma at various private healthcare facilities around South Africa. Additional campaigns funded by Accord Healthcare and RMB will be conducted in the coming months. “Making screening more accessible is the only way to decrease the number of men presenting with de nova metastatic prostate cancer at our public sector health facilities,” says Prostate Cancer Foundation CEO, Andrew Oberholzer. The Prostate Cancer Foundation and Astellas team up to make prostate cancer screening more accessible for South African men Astellas CEO Barnaby McKay with the oncology brand manager Nicola Scott (R) and sales representative Tanya Wielsma (L) at The Urology Hospital test site Prostate Cancer Foundation's professional nurse Sr Marilyn van der Berg making sure that patients understand the advantages and disadvantages of PSA screening before consenting to a PSA test
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