34 minutes | Friday, 4 November 2022
It’s November/Movember. The month when men (well, at least some men) sprout hair on their top lip and grow a moustache!
In case you don’t know, Movember is a worthy charity founded in Australia in 2003 to help research and prevent prostate cancer and other men's health problems.
In Switzerland, about 1 man in 8 will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during his lifetime.
Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death among men in Switzerland, behind only lung cancer. About 1 man in 40 will die of prostate cancer.
What’s my interest in the subject, you might ask? Well, I had surgery for prostate cancer in 2003 at the “youthful” age of 55. It was successful, thank God! That’s why I am here talking to you today. But my dear father died of it at the relatively young age of 63. That was 46 years ago. It seems that there is a family tendency toward his type of cancer in the McKay male genes.
Thankfully – and as I guess we would all expect it - the medical science and technology has advanced since 1976 and 2003, the two big milestones in my prostate cancer recollections.
Some of you listening might remember that back in November/Movember 2015, I interviewed my doctor, the specialist, urologist surgeon who operated on me. Well, I am pleased to say that Dr Charles-Henry Rochat is with me again today.
Under his leadership, the Clinique Générale-Beaulieu (that’s in Geneva) has, since 2015 been one of the few institutions in Switzerland to be accredited “Host Center” by the European Association of Urology (EAU) for training in robot-assisted radical prostatectomy using what’s called the da Vinci® robot.