More Guyanese opt for prostate blood test

Last Updated on Sunday, 10 November 2024, 21:09 by Writer

There has been a sharp increase in the number of Guyanese men checking their prostate now that a blood test is available to do so instead of only a doctor’s finger being inserted into the rectum, doctors said Sunday at the Caribbean Urological Association’s (CURA) 26th Annual International Conference.

Health Minister Dr Frank Anthony said the “bulk” of prostate cancer cases is from Regions Three (West Demerara-Essequibo Islands) Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica) and Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne), 60 years and older, and overall, more persons have been detected with the malignancy. “The persons that we have seen for prostate cancer: If you look at the chart, you would see we’re seeing more cases, not merely because it’s increasing necessarily. It’s now that we’re doing more screening so they are being able to detect,” he said.

Chief Medical Officer of the Ministry of Health, Dr Narine Singh noted that prostate cancer is more prevalent among Afro-Guyanese men 45 years old who have a family history of the disease. Dr Anthony added that the figures on an ethnic breakdown might vary because there is a category of tested persons labelled as “unknown”.

Head of the Ministry of Health’s Coordinator of Men’s Health, Dr Sawan Jagnarain, who coordinated the launch of the “National Guidelines for Prostate Health” told the conference that since Guyana decentralised urology clinics across the country more men are taking the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) blood test and in some cases biopsies are taken and results sent back.

Over the past year, Dr Jagnarain said 10,066 PSAs were done of which 2,003 were elevated and 439 biopsies done throughout Guyana. He also said that 1,983 cases needed follow-up. Dr Jagnarain also praised the “buy-in” from the private sector in screening persons for prostate cancer.

He said that after reviewing data, Guyana decided that the age of screening should begin at 45. Though prostate cancer is prevalent among men of African ancestry, he said the Health Ministry opted to encourage all men regardless of race and geographical location to get tested.

Dr Jagnarain said the PSA test was being conducted in eight of Guyana’s ten administrative regions, with the remaining two regions expected to come on board within another two weeks. He said health centres and hospitals were offering PSA testing, in contrast to one year ago when there was no such facility countrywide. In order to reduce financial and social burdens, he said urology clinics were conducted in hinterland areas. The Health Minister identified Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni) and Region Eight (Potaro-Siparuni) do not have PSA or any other screening.

The Chief Medical Officer said unlike the past when it took three months to conduct a prostate biopsy, that process now takes within one week at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation’s histopathology laboratory.