Cancer awareness is uneven

ORLANDO, Fla. — It's the most common major cancer in America, even though it affects only one sex. Lifetime odds of getting it are 1 in 6. Testing for it is controversial, and treating it robs many of a body part that's important to their sexuality.

This isn't breast cancer, a disease tattooed into the American psyche. It is its male counterpart, which has made a much fainter mark.

Prostate cancer gets a fraction of what is spent on breast cancer research, and virtually nothing is known about what causes it.

It is the only cancer that doctors debate not just how to treat but whether they should at all. Nine out of 10 men don't need treatment, but the rest will die, and there's no good way to tell them apart. It also kills at a higher rate than breast cancer. Nearly 32 men out of 100,000 will die of prostate cancer; 27 women out of 100,000 die of breast cancer.

Advocacy has been weak. Men don't like to wear little blue ribbons, and the field has suffered from lack of support.

Consider Dr. Ernie Bodai's situation. The California surgeon got a special postage stamp that has raised a whopping $50 million to fight breast cancer, a disease he cuts out of dozens of women's bodies each year. But he's been unable to win a similar stamp for his own cancer.

"The prostate cancer community is 10 years behind the breast groups in terms of being acknowledged and coming forward," he lamented.

Now, many are trying to catch up.

More than a thousand specialists, from surgeons to radiologists to dietitians, met in Orlando recently for a first-of-its-kind conference similar to the breast cancer symposium that's been held in Texas for 27 years.

"As San Antonio is to breast cancer, we want this to be for prostate cancer," said Dr. Eric Small of the University of California in San Francisco, who organized the meeting with several big cancer organizations.

What emerged from the three-day conference was a clearer picture of this murky disease and new insights into preventing, detecting and treating it. Among them:

• The immune system might be more effectively harnessed to fight this cancer than many other types. Doctors reported the first success using this approach.

• Smoking has less of an effect on prostate cancer risk than other cancers.

• Obesity affects the odds of dying from the disease more than the odds of getting it.