** Health News ** UCLA Urologists Celebrate Movember by Raising Awareness About Prostate and Testicular Cancers

Mustaches are taking over this month. You’ll see them popping up on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter as men from around the country celebrate Movember each November by growing mustaches and raising money for prostate and testicular cancer research, as well as other men’s health issues. For the expert urologists at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, Movember is a time to share how prostate and testicular cancer research at UCLA is leading to advanced treatments for men here and worldwide.

Today, one man in seven will get prostate cancer in his lifetime with 242,000 new cases being diagnosed each year. Urologic researchers at UCLA are transforming how this common cancer is being diagnosed and managed:

• Pioneering new screening methods like Active Surveillance have changed how patients are monitored for prostate cancer. In the past, early stage prostate cancer patients were told they would need to have a prostatectomy. Now through Active Surveillance, the patient has regular PSA tests, GPS-like Targeted Prostate Biopsies and digital rectal exams. This new precise-targeted biopsy technology combines ultrasound and MRI imaging to target suspicious growths on a patient’s prostate gland allowing for more accurate biopsies. UCLA developed this screening method with grant money from the National Cancer Institute. This is especially beneficial for patients with high PSA levels, but negative biopsies and for those with low-risk prostate cancers who can be monitored over time to see if the cancer progresses. Radical prostatectomy surgery to remove the prostate for slow-growth tumors that will not threaten a man’s life can subject him to urinary incontinence and erectile dysfunction.

• Treatment for Prostate Cancer patients at UCLA can range from surgical procedures, including robotic-assisted, minimally invasive prostatectomies, to chemotherapy, radiation treatments, hormone therapy and immunotherapy for more advanced cases. Each case is managed by a multidisciplinary team of urologists, oncologists, pathologists and nurses who work with the patient and their family to develop and individualized treatment plan.

• Prostate Cancer research continues at UCLA. Dr. Robert Reiter recently received an Early Translational Research Award from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine to develop a monoclonal antibody drug to target castration-resistant prostate cancer stem cells. This potentially transformative treatment for cancer patients could eliminate the cancer stem cells responsible for this aggressive recurrent disease and lead to long-term remissions.

Testicular cancer is most commonly found in young men between the ages of 15 and 34. Approximately 8,000 cases are diagnosed annually.

• Testicular cancer is highly treatable, 95% of men are cured when the cancer is detected and treated early.

• UCLA recommends that young men do regular, monthly self exams of their testicles.

• If a lump is found, men are encouraged to get to an experienced physician at a major medical center, like UCLA, for further tests.

• For patients with testicular cancer, radical inguinal orchiectomy surgery is done to remove the testicle, depending on the stage of cancer, radiation or chemotherapy may be done to treat the affected lymph nodes

• Risk factors for testicular cancer are higher for men who have had an undescended testicle, congenital abnormalities, a family history or a previous history of testicular cancer, and are Caucasian descent. However, the majority of testicular cancer patients had no known risk factors, making self exams that much more vital.

VISUALS:  At the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center—in the lab, operating room, and exam rooms.

CONTACT:  To arrange for interviews on any of these topics please contact:

Diana Soltesz, (818) 592-6747 diana@dsmmedia.com

CONTACT:  To arrange for interviews on any of these topics please contact:

Diana Soltesz, (818) 592-6747 diana@dsmmedia.com