Black men should see a urologist as well as a primary care

By Frederick H. Lowe
Contributing Writer

(Special from The NorthStar News & Analysis) – Black men should make regularly scheduled visits to urologists the same way women regularly visit gynecologists, Charles S. Modlin, Jr., M.D., told doctors at the University of Illinois Hospital in Chicago during a mini-symposium on cancer.

“Every man should have a urologist because he or she focuses on men’s health, men’s sexual health and men’s reproductive health,” said Dr. Modlin, a urologist and associate professor of surgery in the Glickman Urological and Kidney Institute at the Cleveland Clinic in Cleve-land, Ohio. Dr. Modlin’s mission is to encourage every man to have a urologist in addition to having a primary care physician.

Dr. Modlin is also a kidney-transplant surgeon and founder of the Minority Men’s Health Center, also at Cleveland Clinic. The center screened 35 Black men for various forms of cancer, diabetes and heart disease when it was founded in 2003. In 2014, physicians screened several thousand men at the annual Minority Men’s Health Fair, he told the audience. The next Minority Men’s Health Fair is scheduled for April 30, 2015.

Urologists treat benign and cancerous conditions of the male reproduction system and the urinary tract. This includes treatment of men’s reproductive organs, such as the penis, the prostate, the testicles and the scrotum, which is the pouch that protects the testes. In addition, urologists also treat the urinary tract, which includes the kidneys, bladder and ureters that propel urine from the kidneys to the bladder.

Urologists working with primary care physicians can facilitate the wellness of their patients. Urologists are specialists who are trained in best practices of diagnosing and treating prostate cancer and other men’s health concerns, including erectile dysfunction, urinary dysfunction, reproductive health and other matters pertaining to men’s wellness, Dr. Modlin said.

Dr. Modlin, a graduate of Northwestern University and Northwestern University Medical School, delivered the keynote address at the symposium, which featured several presentations, including “Prostate Cancer Survei­llance and Therapy,” “Prostate Cancer Screen Contro­versies,” “Effect of Geographical Access to Primary Care and Other Health Care ­Prov­iders on the Spatial Distribution of Advanced-Stage and Fatal Prostate Cancer in Cook County.”

Vincent Freeman, MD, who delivered a presentation concerning geographical access to primary care, said Black men in Cook County, IL, which includes Chicago, are twice as likely to die from prostate cancer as white men because of a lack of access to health care, lack of health care education and fear of seeking medical care. Freeman is an associate professor epidemiology and biostatistics at the University Of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health.

Modlin’s presentation was titled “Are African-American Males Endangered? Causes and Solutions for their Health Disparities.” He said African-American men should first be tested for prostate cancer at 40, compared with white men who should be tested by 55 unless white men have a strong family history of prostate cancer. If they do, they should be tested earlier.

So why do African-American men have such high rates of prostate cancer? Dr. Modlin said that a hereditary gene along with other contributing causes such as smoking, obesity and eating diets high in saturated fats contribute to the high rate of prostate cancer among African-American men. He noted that prostate cancer is less prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa, which suggests that the western diet plays a major role in the sometimes deadly disease.

The Cancer Center and the UI Health Department of Urology and the Mile Square Health Center sponsored the symposium.

This article originally published in the September 22, 2014 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.