Prostate cancer remains underdiscussed in Greece despite its global toll, with more than 7,000 new diagnoses each year and 19 Greek men learning daily they have the disease, experts say. It is the second most common cancer among men in Europe, according to the World Health Organization.<\/p>\n
Globally, prostate cancer is the fifth leading cause of male cancer deaths, with 375,000 deaths annually and 1.5 million new cases. \u201cUnfortunately, we lack reliable national data,\u201d said oncologist Christos Christodoulou, who renewed calls for a comprehensive cancer registry.<\/p>\n
Specialists warn cases are rising. The American Cancer Society reported that while prostate cancer incidence fell 6.4% annually from 2007 to 2014, it has increased 3% per year since 2015, with advanced-stage diagnoses up nearly 5%. The aging population and lack of routine screening contribute to the trend.<\/p>\n
\u201cSymptoms at early stages resemble benign prostate hyperplasia, so delays in diagnosis are common,\u201d said Ploutarchos Anezinis, a urologist at the University of Crete. He advises men to start prostate checks, including PSA blood tests and physical exams, at age 50, or 45 with family history.<\/p>\n
PSA testing remains controversial due to false positives and negatives, but experts stress its role in guiding imaging and biopsy decisions. \u201cPSA is the best tumor marker we have today,\u201d Anezinis said.<\/p>\n
Biopsies, though uncomfortable and sometimes risky, remain crucial for confirming diagnoses and guiding treatment, doctors said. Advances in imaging have reduced unnecessary biopsies and complications.<\/p>\n
Prostate cancer often progresses slowly and treatments are effective, but Christodoulou cautioned against complacency: \u201cIt\u2019s still a cancer diagnosis and requires serious care.\u201d<\/p>\n
Oncologist Ilias Athanasiadis added: \u201cMy advice to all men is: For any symptom that persists, talk to your doctor. If cancer is found, you have the advantage of early diagnosis. The decision not to know is personal, but knowledge is power\u2026\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Prostate cancer remains underdiscussed in Greece despite its global toll, with more than 7,000 new diagnoses each year…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":47067,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[78],"tags":[18,135,19,2989,17,2990],"class_list":{"0":"post-47066","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-eire","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-in-depth","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-society"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47066"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47066\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}