ATLANTA — While all men have the potential to get prostate cancer, a survivor is urging Black men in the Atlanta metro area to get tested, and sooner, because they’re more likely to get it than others.
Research shows prostate cancer appears more often and more aggressively in the Black community, and Channel 2′s Jorge Estevez took a look at the numbers.
Doctors tell Channel 2 Action News that they’re still not sure exactly why prostate cancer is more prevalent in Black men. Now, a Georgia man is using his own battle with prostate cancer to try and help others.
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“I am not here to scare them, but I am here to be real with them,” David Moffett, a prostate cancer survivor, said.
Prostate cancer found in Black men, which is on average discovered at a later stage, is more likely to be deadly.
Moffett told Channel 2 Action News that his cancer could have been caught even earlier.
“I was mad,” Moffett said. “My dad, my stepfather and my grandfather had prostate cancer. It was never talked about.”
Moffett admitted that silence is common in the Black community.
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“As men, we need to navigate different, these are conversations of substance, these are conversations that will change generationally,” he said.
Numbers show that prostate cancer affects Black men 75% more than white men. Moffett said he feels part of the reason is not asking doctors enough questions. Data shows one in six Black men will develop prostate cancer and that they are more than twice as likely to die from the disease.
“You see the white coat and you are shown ‘hey, that is a doctor, they know everything,’” Moffett said.
Dr. Justin Watson, a urologist who heads the Wellstar Health prostate program and did not treat Moffett, said research does not point to a specific medical reason for why Black men are impacted by prostate cancer more than their white peers.
“It seems that they are at a higher risk of having prostate cancer, a higher risk of it being an aggressive prostate cancer, so especially at need for being screened,” Watson told Channel 2 Action News.
That’s why Moffett is sharing his story in a Wellstar video with his wife, who helped him get through it.
“No, I broke the stronghold, I am able to tell that story and have that conversation with my sons, my nephews,” Moffett said.
He’s also started a support group for prostate cancer patients, called Courage and Strength to Fight, Inc.
“Whether they want to cry and pray and just know they have a safe space to come and talk about their journey,” Moffett said, explaining the support group.
Through the organization, Moffett holds events to raise money and awareness, even having T-shirts to prove it.
Moffett told Channel 2 Action News that the shirt means everything they are doing to save lives.
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