Joan Walters

The Hamilton Spectator

(Apr 29, 2008)

Ontario cabinet minister Ted McMeekin begins easing back to work today a month after surgery for prostate cancer, the most common cancer in Canadian men.

McMeekin will use his profile as a well-known figure on the political and community scene to become "a poster child" for early prostate cancer diagnosis, a position other high-profile cancer victims and celebrities have taken.

When Senator Bob Dole and former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani were diagnosed with prostate cancer, both went public in the United States to promote detection and awareness.

Comedian Tom Green took his testicular cancer public, and Katie Couric had a colonoscopy as host of NBC's Today Show to highlight the risks of colorectal cancer.

In Couric's case, as with other celebrity stories, colonoscopy rates jumped after the broadcast.

What experts call the "celebrity effect" dates to 1974 when Betty Ford, wife of then-president Gerald Ford, talked in the media about her radical mastectomy. The rate for breast cancer detection went up because of "the Betty Ford blip."

McMeekin says it's his turn as an early detection advocate locally.

"I will not shy away from talking about my situation," McMeekin said of his decision to have a radical prostatectomy, which removed his prostate after a blood test and a biopsy led to a cancer diagnosis.

McMeekin, 59, said that "the simple unabashed truth is that early testing is absolutely essential."

He said the cancer was found because his family doctor called personally to admonish McMeekin for skipping a planned prostate blood screening, called a PSA test.

"He said: 'You promised you would get a test once a year and it's been 14 months. I want you to drop what you're doing and get your buns up here.' "

McMeekin did what he was told, triggering the diagnosis, followed by surgery at Burlington's JosephBrantMemorialHospital.

McMeekin, the Liberal government's minister of government and consumer services, said he is healing well, anxious to get back to work and buoyed by "the cares and prayers" of well-wishers.

His first planned return-to-work function is an event today in support of a group of motorcyclists who hold an annual Ride for Prostate Cancer.

"I've been out to a couple of their kickoffs and fired the gun a couple of years ago to get them started," he said. "It was a nice, political, community thing to do, but never in my life did I think that it would take on the kind of meaning it has."

The lesson is that prostate cancer, the most commonly diagnosed cancer in men, has a high cure rate if detected early. It is estimated that one in seven Canadian men will contract it during his lifetime.

McMeekin, former Flamborough mayor and now MPP for Ancaster-Dundas-Flamborough-Westdale, said he went public so that "something positive would came of this."

"I was tearfully thankful that things went as well as they did. I had already started saying to my friends -- particularly those over 50 -- have you had this test?"

The Ontario government has said it will make OHIP funding available for PSAs, tests that measure a substance in the blood called prostate specific antigens. Free tests begin in January.

The PSA test and a digital rectal exam -- followed by a biopsy if certain results appear -- are key to early detection of prostate cancer.

Some critics say funding PSAs will cause some patient stress because a test can show abnormal levels without cancer being present.

But publicity of the benefits of early diagnosis can help debunk myths and "reassure men about the high likelihood of a cure with prompt therapy," one expert says.

John Blanchard, chief executive of the Prostate Cancer Research Foundation, says the risk of impotence, urinary incontinence and other consequences of treatment may seem so daunting that a lot of men don't even want to get tested.

In the foundation's most recent survey, only 37 per cent of men between 45 and 65 are choosing to get the tests that Blanchard says all should be taking every year.

jwalters@thespec.com

905 526-3302

2008 Canadian Statistics Countrywide: 24,700 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer this year, and 4,300 will die of it. In Ontario: 10,500 will be diagnosed, and 1,650 will die of it. * Prostate cancer is the most common cancer among men. * On average, 475 Canadian men a week will be diagnosed. * About 80 Canadian men a week will die of prostate cancer. * One in seven men will develop prostate cancer during his lifetime, most after age 60.

Source: Canadian Cancer Society and the Ontario government