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September 02, 2022
Prostate cancer risk high for tane Māori
Moeawa Fransen
Posted On September 2, 2022
Download AudioThe kaumatua for the Prostate Cancer Foundation says tane Māori need to increase their awareness of the dangerous but not necessarily deadly disease.
September is Prostate Cancer Awareness Month, and the foundation estimates one in eight New Zealand men will get the disease in their lifetime, making it New Zealand’s most diagnosed cancer.
Dene Ainsworth says early detection is vital to survival and recommends men get screened annually – especially Maori.
“A Maori man who has been diagnosed with prostate cancer is one and a half to two times more likely to die from it than a non-Maori. I don’t know what the reasons are for that. We can talk about inequities, which we all know about. We can also talk about institutional racism. Whatever it is, we need to start getting on top of it and taking control of ourselves,” he says.
Dene Ainsworth says men need to have more conversations about their health, similar to how women are now far more aware of the need to look out for breast cancer or cervical cancer.
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