preventing prostate cancer saves lives

November is full of mustaches and men’s health messages. The movement Movemberborn from the union of the English words mustache (mustache) and November (November), has become a global event for raise awareness about diseases that especially affect menlike the prostate cancerhe testicular cancerthe depression or the suicide.

In Spain, where More than 27,000 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer each yearthe message is clear: Prevention and early detection save lives. According to the doctor José Ángel Gómez Pascualhead of the Urology Service at the Quirónsalud Málaga Hospital, “prostate cancer is the most common in men and the third most deadly.” Even so, he points out, “it has a high cure rate if it is detected in time.”

A silent but treatable enemy

“Prostate cancer is a silent disease, which occurs without symptoms in most cases,” explains the doctor. Therefore, he insists on the importance of carrying out periodic check-ups from the age of 50or even sooner if there is a family history or risk factors.

Common tests include PSA (Prostate Specific Antigen) blood test and the rectal examinationa fast and safe scan that can detect irregularities. Despite this, many men they keep delaying their queries due to “shame, fear of testing or stigma,” according to the Spanish Association of Urology (AEU) in the presentation of his new campaign in which he highlights that “Taking care of yourself is also a man’s thing”.

The president of the Madrid Urological Societydoctor Luis Llanessummarizes it clearly: “Why is early detection of urological cancer important? Because we increase the chances of having an effective treatment with curative intent for patients in whom we detect cancer.”

With early diagnosis, Prostate cancer survival reaches 90% at five yearsalthough it still causes some 6,000 deaths annually in Spain.

Breaking the silence: talking and taking care of yourself

The AEU insists that men should normalize urological check-ups and talk openly about your health. “We have to talk about this with our friends, with our families and with our neighbors. Every conversation counts, every medical check-up can save a life,” emphasizes the president of the AEU, Dr. Carmen González Enguita.

His campaign, which is carried out under the motto #MovemberAEU2025will include actions on social networks, informative talks and service points in hospitals. An educational day for patients will also be held at the Jiménez Díaz Foundation Hospital of Madridwith the aim of position the urologist as a trusted ally in men’s health care.

Technological advances: fusion biopsy

Among the innovations that are transforming the diagnosis of prostate cancer, Dr. Gómez Pascual highlights the fusion biopsya technique that combines MRI and the transrectal ultrasound to accurately direct sampling.

“With the multiparametric resonance we can assess both the need for a biopsy and the exact area in which the sampling should be directed,” explains the specialist, who insists that “the fusion biopsy is the key diagnostic tool of recent times, by allowing adjust prostate cancer detection level beyond 95%, without going blind and without false negatives“.

This procedure, he adds, allows 30% more aggressive cancers to be diagnosed that would have gone unnoticed with the classical technique.

Testicular cancer: rare, but no less important

Although it represents only between 1% and 2% of neoplasms in men, the testicular cancer It is the most common among young men, especially among 20 and 40 years. According to Dr. Gómez Pascual, if it is allowed to evolve without treatment, it leads to death in 85% of patients over the course of 2 to 5 years. But “if we treat it properly, today it is one of the malignant tumors with the lowest mortality (5%).”

The testicular self-examination It is essential. The AEU reminds that an early diagnosis guarantees 95% survivaland recommends performing this self-examination once a month and go to the doctor if there is any change.

Delay in consultation—sometimes three to six months—is common because “a patient denial mechanism“, according to the urologist, which can delay the diagnosis and complicate treatment.

Among the causes of risk, the cryptorchidism (undescended testicle), which multiplies between three and fourteen times the probability of developing this type of cancer.

Dismantling myths and normalizing men’s grooming

During the campaign, specialists also want debunk false myths that stop revisions. Rectal examination is not humiliatingis a seconds-long medical examination that can save lives. In the same way, losing a testicle does not make a man less of a man and being diagnosed with cancer It doesn’t mean losing your sex life.because there are treatments with different effects.

The representative of the movement TheMoveMen, Juancho Escuderoconsiders that men usually delegate health care to women and “they do not have it in their heads” the need to carry out prevention.

A call to action: review, prevent, live

The second vice president of the National Association of Prostate Cancer (ANCAP), César Comuñashas called for the creation of a specific national screening for prostate cancersimilar to the one that already exists for breast cancer. “Breast cancer is a cousin of ours. It is also hormonal and has a similar prevalence, a similar incidence and a practically identical mortality rate. Why doesn’t this population screening exist? I can’t understand it,” he laments.

For his part, the manager of the Spanish Group of Cancer Patients (GEPAC), Marcos Martínezhas asked more time and information for patientsso that they understand their treatments and face the disease more calmly.

Finally, the director of the board of trustees of the Foundation for Research in Urologythe doctor José Luis Álvarez-Ossoriorecalled the true meaning of this quote: “Movember is much more than a month. It is a call to conscience, prevention and solidarity. It reminds us that behind it there is history, there is a family and there is a hope that depends greatly on the commitment that we must have as a scientific society and as a human society“.