29 years of action against prostate cancer

Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia has marked its 29th Anniversary by releasing an 11 Point Plan for Zero Deaths from Prostate Cancer. 

The plan maps out a comprehensive pathway to improve early detection, treatment accessibility, and support for men living with prostate cancer. 

In a message to supporters, PCFA’s National Chairman, Adjunct Associate Professor Steve Callister AM, spoke of the organisation’s history: 

The story of our founding is humble. We sprang to life from suburban Australia in 1996, following the shock diagnosis of Australian television icon Roger Climpson in 1994. 

It was a time when relatively little was known about prostate cancer, and how to treat it. So too, support for men and their partners was sparse. As Roger said at the time: 

“I can’t think of a quicker way in the world to make the sun disappear, and at first I was terribly frightened. I remember lying there at night thinking ‘What on earth is going to happen? Nobody in the world seems to know exactly what will occur next – what can I do? What can the specialist do?’” 

What he decided to do has changed the course of history, creating the organisation we know today as PCFA.  

He was among the first to stand up publicly, originally in a meeting of the Rotary Club of Lane Cove, to talk about what it was like to have prostate cancer – what it was like to face the uncertainty of his own diagnosis and decide on his preferred treatment, and what it was like to have no guarantee of an effective outcome. 

Together with the other members of the club, he founded a coalition of men and their partners united in their will to take action against a disease that was growing fast in scale and significance.  

Over the course of nearly 30 years, we have invested more than $70 million in research, distributed more than a million resources, and supported hundreds of thousands of men and families.  

Perhaps the most important measure of our progress has been an increase in five-year survival from 69.7% then to 95.8% today. 

But we still have more work to do, as the toll of prostate cancer rises. More than 26,000 men are newly diagnosed each year, nearly 4,000 will die, and men face a 70% increased risk of suicide related to the disease and its treatment. 

The burden is heavy, accounting for 16% of all cancers diagnosed, for more hospitalisations than any other form of cancer, and for 1 in 3 of all cancers diagnosed among Australian men. 

And yet, if we apply the knowledge we have right now, to detect the disease early and treat it in a timely and effective way, we know we can beat it. 

That's why today we are releasing PCFA's 11 Point Plan for Zero Deaths from Prostate Cancer.