Lack of knowledge on the prevalence and early detection of prostate cancer is killing several Fijian men annually.

CWM Hospital’s Oncology Unit representative Dr Akaash Prasad says the Ministry of Health each year records around 30 to 50 prostate cancer cases.

Dr Prasad says recent statistics show that prostate cancer cases have overtaken breast cancer cases.

He adds the Fijian population has very limited knowledge about prostate cancer there is also a very poor attitude towards the deadly disease.

“This was in 2018 which states that prostate cancer deaths overtake those from breast cancer. Earlier this year BBC release an article which says that prostate cancer overtakes breast as the most common cancer in the world.”

It has also been revealed that many patients present themselves after having an anced stage of prostate cancer and the chances of survival becomes very low.

“We have seen quite a few men who have the symptoms for years and then they present very late to us. Eventually,they have back pain and start losing weight and the cancer is spread everywhere. Just because this is a private and personal issue most people don’t want to share this even with their doctors.”

So far this year there are sixty prostate cancer cases and last year, the Health Ministry recorded 41 cases.