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Ask Your Doctor About Prostate Screenings

After skin cancer, prostate cancer is the most common type of cancer in men. Older men are especially at risk.

Lower Your Risk

Research suggests these actions may help reduce the risk for prostate cancer:

• Choose lean meats or vegetable dishes.
• Choose high-nutrient foods. Foods containing selenium, lycopene and vitamin E may all be beneficial.
• Lose those extra pounds. Overweight, older men also are much more likely than normal-sized men to develop a more serious form of the disease.
• Exercise regularly.
• Ask your doctor about taking aspirin. Older men who regularly used aspirin had fewer cases of prostate cancer, researchers found. However, aspirin also can increase your risk for internal bleeding, so be sure to ask your doctor first.

Get Screened

To further help minimize the risk for death from prostate cancer, screenings are available for men ages 50 and older. The American Cancer Society says that beginning at age 50, men should be offered prostate cancer screening annually. High-risk men may be offered screening even earlier.

If you decide to be screened, you will have two tests every year:

• Prostate-specific antigen (PSA) blood test. PSA is a substance made by the prostate. A higher-than-normal level of PSA in the blood means an increased chance that you have prostate cancer.
• Digital rectal exam (DRE). A doctor feels for cancer on the prostate. A hard or bumpy patch may be cancerous. Even if you have a normal PSA level, a DRE may be able to find cancer.