Awareness Is Half the Battle

Recent articles have chronicled the decreased death rates from prostate cancer. If you ask us here at NPCC, we will point to the use of the PSA test and increased awareness about prostate cancer. Others might not completely agree with us or might have a different explanation altogether. However, this article is not to spark some debate about why statistics show one thing or another - today, I'm writing about the public relations challenge we face on Capitol Hill on a daily basis.

To date, we have met with nearly 180 Congressional offices since Thanksgiving. Obviously we have friends on Capitol Hill who are very knowledgeable about prostate cancer - some who know from experience. These are the Members who traditionally help us by leading the Dear Colleague campaign, introducing legislation such as the Manton bill or resolutions like the one for National Prostate Cancer Awareness Month. Senator Sessions tells a great story about how his prostate cancer was discovered during a routine medical examination that all Senators must undergo prior to taking office. If not for that exam, he says he may not have ever discovered he had prostate cancer.

When I started this massive outreach effort on Capitol Hill, however, my goal was not to focus on offices where we are already a known entity, but to strategically target Members who should be supportive of what we do but had not recently (or ever) supported any NPCC legislative initiative.

So, we set out heading into Members offices who were supportive of other cancer initiatives and I was shocked at the number of Members and staffers who were unaware of some of the basic stats about prostate cancer. Many were unaware of the fact that more men are diagnosed every year with prostate cancer than women with breast cancer. I was particularly alarmed at the number of members who have large populations of African Americans in their district that were unaware of how much more devastating the disease is among that population.

What can we do about this? Well, we can only do so much. Physically, we do not have the manpower to visit every single Member and personally update them about prostate cancer. Advocates are the most important link here to make sure that the people you elect to office are aware of important issues like this. That is why we ask you to call, write, fax or email your Members of Congress and tell them about prostate cancer and let them know it is important to you.

What do you say? You talk about prostate cancer facts - diagnosis rates, mortality rates, you talk about lack of adequate funding for prostate cancer research (prostate cancer research is outspent by about 3 to 1 by breast cancer research), you talk about the need for your Representatives and Senators to be aware of legislation such as the Manton Bill and resolutions about Prostate Cancer Awareness Month (September).

In short, we can increase support for prostate cancer legislative initiatives by raising awareness on Capitol Hill.