MINUTES 09-04-18 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Dr. Hekman spoke as Medical Director of the Family Health Center. He announced that the Family Health Center has a urologist on staff. He mentioned that family medicine practitioners do routine prostate screening as well. He introduced Dr. Charles Modlin. Dr. Charles Medlin — Cleveland Clinic Dr. Medlin remarked on his medical practice and career at Cleveland Clinic. The mere fact that you're having this proclamation to recognize Prostate Cancer Awareness Month and underscore the importance of screening is going to have a significant impact in terms of saving countless lives of men, of residents of Lakewood. You've heard a lot about the statistics of prostate cancer. Some of the things that fool men or make men believe that it's not important that they get screened for prostate cancer is most men who develop prostate cancer have no symptoms or signs whatsoever. And so a lot of men mistakenly think that if they don't have signs, symptoms, pains, discomfort, that they don't have prostate cancer — that there is no reason for them to get screened. The majority of men detected to have prostate cancer nowadays are detected by the simple blood test — the PSA blood test which you have heard about. It's called the prostate specific antigen blood test. In the old days before we had this test, most men were detected during a digital rectal examination. As urologists we prefer to do both examinations when screening men but a lot of men are going to refuse the examination so we at least encourage the men to get the blood test. About one in six men in the United States will develop prostate cancer. One in three black men will develop prostate cancer. Black men develop and die from prostate cancer twice as often as their white male counterparts. And the recommendation for screening is about 55 years old. Actually it's recommended that African American men start screening for prostate cancer at the age of 40. I think your resolution needs to encourage even more so African American men at younger ages to get screened. And that's because of the higher incidence and higher death rate. At Cleveland Clinic we're doing a lot of things to promote awareness about prostate cancer and screening. One of the things we have is our annual minority men's health fair, which many of you have probably heard about. We actually welcome all men regardless of race or ethnicity but we target men of color because of the higher rates. As was mentioned, prostate cancer, if detected early can potentially be 100% cured. There are different ways to cure prostate cancer, treat prostate cancer — either with surgery or radiation. One thing that you need to relay to the men of Lakewood is that not all cases of prostate cancer need to be treated. There are many situations that we as urologists are discovering that when we diagnose some men that have low grade prostate cancer, we can actually just observe them. So there are some men that may not need to be treated whatsoever. But I just wanted to say thank you for this resolution. I think you're going to have a great impact in terms of improving the health and saving lives of men in your community. Councilmember Rader thanked Dr. Medlin for coming out. He committed to emphasizing Dr. Medlin's concern about the importance of early screening for African American men. Councilmember O'Leary thanked Dr. Modlin for attending and for his work. He expressed optimism that the Resolution will help to raise awareness and have a positive health impact. On the motion: All members voted in favor. Motion passed. Resolution 9014 -18 adopted.