‘Bum crack’ contest aims to raise prostate cancer awareness in NZ

Don't be shy, doc - digitally examine me.

PROSTABLOG:  This is a joke, right – a NZ contest will be launched this week to rate men’s bum cracks as part of this year’s Blue September prostate cancer awareness campaign?

Am I being prudish, or will this seriously help persuade a man to go to his GP and ask for a prostate cancer checkup…that will involve the doctor performing a digital exam?

Digital exam – polite language for sticking a finger up your “bum crack” to feel the prostate for signs of cancer.

Isn’t convincing men the digital exam is no threat to their masculinity one of the big problems of prostate awareness?

Are we so far along the path of overcoming macho resistance (read homophobia) that we can joke about this in a serious awareness campaign?

Doubt it.

A story in today’s Sunday Star-Times newspaper announcing the bum crack contest said:

THEY CAN be seen on building sites throughout the country, are the bane of women’s lives and probably the delight of men’s – yes, the humble builder’s crack is again demanding attention.

A cheeky Auckland advertising agency has come up with a novel campaign called Rate My Crack in order to raise awareness for Blue September – the major awareness campaign of the Prostate Cancer Foundation of New Zealand.

The online campaign asks builders, both male and female, to take photos of their workmate’s rear end as it spills out of their jeans and send it in to be judged by the online community.

The owner of the winning ‘‘bum cleavage’’ will receive $1000 to spend at a Placemakers store.

Leighton Dyer, of Rascal advertising agency, said the company was looking for a light-hearted way to raise the profile of a serious disease.

He was not concerned the campaign would offend any sensitive souls – and he expected more than 90% of the entries to be from men.

Website www.ratemycrack.co.nz will go live on Tuesday.

A brief mention in Sunday paper’s story about people who reveal all on the web

PROSTABLOG NZ: Kiwi prostate cancer campaigner Mark Ebrey sent this supportive note today about my small appearance in the Sunday Star-Times‘ magazine feature about people who reveal all on the web:

“I see you got an honorable mention in the Sunday magazine today. Well done.

I’ve got a petition currently before the Health Select Committee considering whether to review the LDR brachytherapy treatment option.

You will be interested to know I had the implant a month ago yesterday and to date – absolutely no side effects whatsoever, other than the pain over heart where the $24,000 bill is.

Am beginning to wonder about a disease I had no symptoms for, and treatment with no side effects – have I actually been conned?”

Golfer Arnie has prostate cancer – and he’s campaigning about it

NEW YORK TIMES: Arnold Palmer led the charge in popularizing golf in the United States in the 1950s and now, in retirement, he is in the vanguard of another movement: educating the public about prostate cancer. READ MORE>

New review looks at best options for managing prostate cancer

NEW PROSTATE CANCER INFOLINK: Is there an optimal management for localised prostate cancer?, a new review by Singh et al., has just been published online in a new journal called Clinical Interventions in Aging.

The article appears to provide a thorough, sound, and neutral introductory review to all of the major management options. READ MORE>

Prostate cancer patients with Gleason score 6 very unlikely to develop late recurrence

URO TODAY: Prostate cancer patients with Gleason score 6 disease are very unlikely to develop late recurrence and might be candidates for less-intense follow-up once they have passed the five-year mark. READ MORE>

Barry Young no longer president of NZ Prostate Cancer Foundation

PROSTABLOG NZ: Nothing has been publicly announced so far as I know, but what has happened to NZ’s Mr Prostate Cancer?

Barry Young – long the voice of prostate cancer in this country – seems no longer to be president of  the Prostate Cancer Foundation, the organisation he steered for the last decade.

Go to the foundation’s website and you’ll see the president is now listed as Hawkes Bay lawyer Mark von Dadelszen.

Barry announced at the 2009 foundation AGM that he would be stepping down.

Invasion of the Prostate Snatchers is provocative new book on multi-billion dollar industry

NEW YORK TIMES: Invasion of the Prostate Snatchers, by Ralph H. Blum and Dr. Mark Scholz, is a provocative and frank look at the bewildering world of prostate cancer, from the current state of the multi-billion-dollar industry to the range of available treatments. READ MORE>

US cancer conference offered little that was new to prostate cancver sufferers

US PROSTATE CANCER FOUNDATION: This year’s annual conference of the American Society of Clinical Oncology was uneventful and thus somewhat disappointing  in terms of findings that would suddenly lengthen the survival of men with advanced prostate cancer in 2011. READ MORE>

Canadian researchers develop new drug to prolong lives of prostate cancer patients

VANCOUVER SUN: Vancouver researchers have developed a new cancer-fighting drug that will prolong the life of patients with advanced prostate cancer, doubling their life expectancy compared with a decade ago. READ MORE>

Diet care, nutrition, supplements have no real effect on prostate cancer prevention

NEW PROSTATE CANCER INFOLINK: There is minimal evidence of any well-defined effect of diet, nutrition or supplement use on the prevention of prostate cancer, says a new study. READ MORE>

The authors conclude exclusively that a high dietary intake of polyunsaturated n-6 fatty acids may increase prostate cancer risk because of their effects on inflammation and oxidative stress.