KUWAIT: The National Cancer Awareness Campaign (CAN) launched a prostate cancer awareness campaign under the slogan “Your health deserves attention” to coincide with November, which is International Prostate Cancer Awareness Month in collaboration with the Kuwait Urological Association.
Chairman of the Board of CAN, Dr Khaled Al-Saleh, emphasized that the launch of the campaign comes within the framework of CAN’s ongoing commitment to promoting public health and spreading health awareness about prostate cancer. Al-Saleh added that the campaign aims to provide health information about the disease by providing specialized medical staff for direct consultations with the public in shopping malls or giving lectures and encouraging people to undergo tumor marker tests, which, if elevated, indicate an increased risk of developing the disease.
He explained that the campaign includes organizing numerous events to reach the largest number of people in the target age group, especially since this type of cancer has become an important indicator sounding the alarm about the high incidence rate among men. He said that according to 2020 statistics released by the Kuwait Cancer Control Center, the incidence rate among Kuwaitis reaches 51 new cases annually, equivalent to 8.7 percent of cancer cases among Kuwaitis.
He pointed out that among non-Kuwaiti men, there are 40 new cases annually, equivalent to 6.6 percent of all cancer cases among non-Kuwaitis, adding that (KAF) adopted this initiative to encourage men over the age of 50 to adopt a healthy lifestyle by analyzing PSA prostate cancer tumor markers. He added that risk factors include a family history of this tumor and obesity.
As for prevention, paying attention to a healthy lifestyle in terms of both diet and exercise is the best way to prevent all diseases, including cancers such as prostate cancer, in addition to maintaining body weight and undergoing screening, especially for the target group. He emphasized that CAN has not hesitated to spread health awareness in various ways and continues to strive to achieve the highest rate in this field, based on its strategy of establishing the principles of sustainability, adopting a healthy lifestyle and seeking to implement early detection tests to reinforce the principle of public health.
