“Remove” taboos and encourage check-ups, essential to combat prostate cancer

“Withdraw” taboos and encouraging check-ups are two key points to combat the prostate canceras explained by Dr. Camilo Moreno, medical director of Astellas Farma LATAM, in an interview with EFE.

In Mexico, 25,000 cases of this type of cancer are detected each year, the second most common in men worldwide, and more than 7,500 deaths are reported from this cause, according to official figures.

Precisely, the fight against prostate cancer and raising awareness about its treatment underlies the digital campaign ‘Checking yourself is having them on well’, promoted by Astellas Farma México this November, men’s health month.

“Our goal is to guarantee that we remove this taboo that exists about doing a prostate exam, which will not mean any compromise for the person’s manhood nor will it cause any problems,” Moreno pointed out.

He added that, in Latin America, there is a widespread belief that “What is not seen does not exist”which causes many people not to go to their health center when they feel the first symptoms and the situation worsens until it becomes irreversible.

The epidemiologist also stressed that there is a web of beliefs influenced by culture “of macho dominance” in the region that, mixed with the lack of habit of health check-ups, make it difficult for the health system to detect a disease in time “preventable and treatable.”

“In first world countries, you capture patients much earlier, in a 80% approximate of the cases, and the advanced disease is captured in only a minority of the cases, which ends up being a twenty% approximately”, contextualized.

On the other hand, in Latin America, “The opposite happens: the 80% of the people in the advanced stage and a twenty% or less, even, in a more initial scenario.”

Thus, for Moreno, the region “will always be relatively disadvantaged in terms of diagnosis and therapeutic approach.”

“Raise the flag to lose fear”

Given this situation, Astellas Farma México launched the digital campaign this November ‘Checking yourself is having them on well’, that pursues “change this perspective” and “raise the flag so that people lose their fear of this exam”, a check-up that “can increase the lives of patients”.

The initiative disseminates audiovisual content through social networks, both of the company and its workers, and its target audience is men.

“A real man always seeks to do the right thing. If you are over 40 years old, he shows that you have them well and take the exams”, is an example of the messages that Astellas Farma México is launching in a “effort to raise awareness about the importance of regularly attending the urologist, leaving aside fears and false information.”

Finally, Moreno highlighted the “such an important role” from the environment close to man, to whom the new campaign is also directed.

“Many times, the patient may not make their decisions because they do not feel the immediate support of their companions because they do not know either”he warned, so he encouraged them to “serve as a fundamental basis” in the prevention and possible treatment of the disease.