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Once again, substituting for a ‘President on the mend’ from knee surgery (when will this ever end?) PP X2 Chris Gaynor called the meeting to order. Pp Chris immediately saluted the zoom participants (Good, Bradford, Scherer, and Jackson), called upon Teya McCockran to repeat the 4-Way Test, and thanked PP Peter More for being the greeter, PP Barron for acting as the Windmill drafter and Jim Crane to lead the Pledge.
Then for a more thoughtful and substantive ‘Thought of the Day’ by PPx2 Day himself gave the members a Labor Day (too many Days?) review, including an end of summer and start of school comment. PP Ed Gauld then led the members in a southerly rendition of the Battle Hymn of the Republic.
Rotary guest and First Lady, Susan Fisher, was introduced by none other than our President, Benjamin. An outside guest, Gary Hearn, was introduced by his friend, Nanci Cohen. Gary said he had worked for a wealthy Hollywood type, and upon urging from the members, identified the wealthy individual as Michael Jackson. Welcome Gary!
PP Chris Gaynor then congratulated Phil Gabriel and Jim Crane on their August birthdays and proceeded to recognize, as shown on the screen, membership anniversaries. One glitch, however, it soon became apparent that it was several couple’s anniversaries. After that screw-up, PP Chris told the ‘joke of the day’ with help from Susan Fisher and PP Steve Day. It was obvious there was no rehearsal as assigned lines and punch lines were stalled, muffed up, and finally ended with groans and shaking of heads from the crowd.
On to the speaker….
(Having sat with today’s speaker during the lunch and social half-hour, this author knew we were about to transition from mishaps to a serious and informative presentation.)
President Benjamin, sitting from his semi-permanent position at the table, introduced Dr. Adam Weiner, MD, a urological oncologist at Ceders Sinai Medical Center. What is a urological oncologist you may ask? Well, his expertise includes all cancers such as prostate, kidney, bladder and testicular. The good doctor graduated from Yale, attended Medical School at the University of Chicago, performed his residency in Urology at Northwestern and gained his fellowship in Urological Oncology at UCLA.
Dr. Weiner’s presentation, as he outlined, was focused on the When, Where and How, in a simplistic way, of Prostate Screening. In his PowerPoint presentation, he showed Prostate cancer per year as follows: new cases – 300,000, deaths - 35,000, people have it – 3,000,000, average age – 67 and the Bell Curve age is 45 to 75.
The stages of occurrence are:
- Small to low grade
- Large and higher grade (requiring radiation and therapy)
- Spread outside the Prostate (lifelong hormone treatment and chemotherapy)
The gradation of Prostate cancer, and most cancers as well, is scaled at 1 to 5, with 1 being ranked as least aggressive and 5 is the most aggressive.
The “When” or “how to deal with it,” phase the doctor explained, is for screening without symptoms. The screening for an individual male is to have a PSA test in your annual physical. In the 1990’s screening was infrequent, in the 2000 – 2010 years, screening was more common especially those with symptoms, and by the 2020’s a customary practice. This is especially important for those people who have risk factors. Those factors are: Black/Afro-Americans, germane mutations, and family history of Prostate cancer. If there are no risk factors, then you can stop screening post 75 years old.
Dr. Weiner was very forthcoming in his comments. He emphasized the importance of evaluating yourself. If you take PSA tests, the rectal examine is of little importance. An elevated PSA count does not necessarily mean Prostate cancer exists. However, all people with an elevated count should have a biopsy.
If the PSA count is elevated, what else should you do? This strictly depends on your age. Is there anything you can do to prevent Prostate cancer? The evidence is very weak on the causes, he explained, thus not much can you do for prevention. A question was asked: if a person is in his eighties, with no symptoms, what is the chance of incurring Prostate cancer? Very little, he said.
Dr. Adam Weiner is associated with Cedars Sinai and can be reached at 310-423-4700. His presentation was extremely interesting and informative.
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