[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 118 (Wednesday, September 9, 1998)]
[House]
[Pages H7476-H7480]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   IMPORTANCE OF PERSONAL HEALTH CARE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Everett). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of January 7, 1997, the gentleman from California (Mr. 
Cunningham) is recognized for 60 minutes.
  Mr. CUNNINGHAM. Mr. Speaker, in a way, I am going to talk about 
health care, but I am going to talk about personal health care. The 
reason is that I am a prostate cancer survivor. Three weeks ago I had 
prostate cancer and it was removed out of my body. I would like to go 
through the process and describe how many men and women, both with 
breast cancer and prostate cancer, can have a good diagnosis.
  That diagnosis is based on early detection. Many HMOs do not offer a 
PSA, which is an indicator for an antigen produced by prostate cancer. 
TRICARE for veterans does not necessarily offer a PSA.
  Let me tell you why that is important. First of all, about a month 
ago Dr. Eisold here in the Capitol, who is the attending physician, 
gave me my annual physical. I have had an annual physical for the last 
30 years. Every year for 20 years in the military they demanded it as a 
pilot, and then, after that, I know the importance of an annual 
physical.
  This time they wanted to do a prostate check. I am over 50 years of 
age, and it should be checked every year. Well, they did the regular 
prostate check, and they found nothing. There was no cancer, there were 
no lumps, there were no lesions, and there was no metastasized area.
  Then the doctor looked at a blood test, which was painless, and in 
that blood test, a PSA, which, again, is a check for an antibody that 
prostate cancer produces, and I had a slight elevation in the level; 
not real high, but just a slight elevation.
  Now, normally you would do the physical check and that would be it. 
You would think you were cancer-free. So the doctor ordered a sonogram, 
which takes a look at the internal aspects of the prostate itself, and 
in that they found no tumors as well, no cancer. So then they did an 
MRI through the whole pelvic region and found no tumors, no cancer.
  Another reason I am alive today is that the doctor, besides having a 
good health care system, besides having a doctor that was thorough, 
that not only just gave you a blood test, but he read the results and 
was insistent upon going through and analyzing all the different 
aspects of the diagnosis, said ``Duke, we want to perform a prostate 
biopsy.''
  Now, I would rather fly over Hanoi again than get a shot, so you can 
imagine, Mr. Speaker, the dismay the night before. I imagined a needle 
this long that they were going to take and stick in my prostate and 
take out these core cells.
  When I got out to Bethesda, the doctor and the clinician prepared me, 
and they said, ``Duke, this is not going to be real painful.'' And I 
said, ``Yeah, right.'' It is like sitting in a dentist's office, and 
you are just waiting for that drill to hit a nerve. What it is is they 
take six core cells each time out of your prostate, and there is a 
little needle with a mechanism that fires and takes out a core cell.
  The first one he said it is going to sound like a cap gun goes off. 
So you are sitting there waiting for this immense pain to happen, and 
you hear the snap and you flinch, but there was no pain, not even a 
prick. At that point you are sitting there waiting; okay, I have got 5 
to go, I know the next one is going to hurt. Well, they did each and 
every one of those core samples, and there was no pain.
  The point I want to make is that for the men, Mr. Speaker, if you are 
asked

[[Page H7477]]

to get a biopsy and you think it is going to be painful, and I almost 
myself said ``Hey, you have given me a regular check for prostate, you 
have given me a sonogram, you have given me an MRI, I don't want to go 
get a biopsy,'' because of the fear.
  Thank God that the doctor insisted, and I went and got it, because in 
two of the core cells of the six in the right lobe they found cancer 
cells. There is a Gleason number, and what Gleason is, it is a number 
between two and ten, but a Gleason rate of two to ten gives the amount 
or the characteristic or the aggressiveness of the cancer. A Gleason 
ten is the highest. For example, a Gleason of eight to ten, I have 
read, and you become an automatic expert on this and you read as much 
as you can, you have about five years until the cancer metastasizes, 
which means it spreads into the bladder area or into other areas, into 
the lymph nodes and so on.
  Originally the doctor told me, Duke, you can probably go to eight to 
ten years, because my Gleason rate was so low, and not have a problem, 
or at least have the symptoms, because the symptom is when you actually 
get a tumor and the tumor presses on the urethrae in the GI tract, and 
it presses and you have urinary problems. By that time, the tumor has 
spread and there is a big problem. By that time, it can metastasize, go 
to other areas, and the prognosis is not good. But the doctor, because 
of the low Gleason rate, because they only found cells, they found no 
tumors whatsoever, said, ``Duke, I am going to go through the cycle 
with you and I am going to give every option there is.''
  Next comes, I think, Mr. Speaker, probably the most important phase 
of cancer. My family flew back here and were very supportive. We made 
the decisions together. I told my wife, I said, ``Honey, it was like 
the time when I was shot down in Vietnam just south of Hanoi, and 
coming down in a parachute thinking I was going to be a prisoner or 
die, hanging in a parachute, the thought, it is always the other guy 
that gets shot down; it is not you. It does not happen to Duke 
Cunningham.'' But it did. And when a doctor looks you in the face and 
says, ``Duke, I have got bad news; you've got cancer,'' the first 
reaction I had was no, it is impossible. That does not happen to Duke 
Cunningham. It is about all those other people that you read about that 
have cancer, or have diabetes, or have that, but it cannot happen to 
me.
  The doctor looked and said ``Duke, you do have cancer. The good news 
is we think we have it early and that the prognosis should be very 
good.''
  He went through the different steps. Radiation is one of those. With 
radiation they actually can focus the radiation almost pinpoint now 
because of the increased techniques that they have, but, still, the 
radiation treatment that you can have can cause side effects just as 
bad as if you have a radical prostatectomy, which is taking out the 
prostate through surgery. With that, one is incontinence, in which you 
cannot control your urinary tract, and the second is impotence. And 
with the radiation they said there was a high percentage, and I say 
high, about 15 to 20 percent, that the cancer would come back.
  By having the cancer removed, especially at an early age, they said 
``We can go in, and instead of making an incision across the stomach, 
we can do one called,'' I can't remember the name of it right now, I 
will think of it in a minute. But it is down in the lower area instead 
of across the stomach. ``By that way, we can go in and remove the 
prostate. We will not have to cut a bunch of nerves, we won't have to 
cut blood vessels, and most of your functions, all of your functions, 
can be normal after this, if we do it early and we do it right.''
  So rather than sit with myself and make a decision that there is a 20 
percent chance that the cancer may return, my election and my family's 
election was we did not want me to sit there for the next eight to 
ten years and think maybe I have a time bomb inside of me and this 
could come back. Plus if you have radiation surgery, it is more 
difficult to do actual surgery because of the tissue damage on the 
internal organs. At the same time, we made the decision to go ahead and 
have the surgery.

  Now, there are alternative methods, Mr. Speaker, and this the reason 
I am encouraging both men and women to have their yearly checks. 
Because of the research that we have, if you catch it early, either 
with breast cancer or prostate cancer, the success rate can be very, 
very high, up to 95 percent.
  The doctor also told me that women quite often will do the self-
examination or breast check. They will have a doctor check it, they do 
the mammograms, blood tests and throughout, but in the self-check, that 
they will quite often find a lump and not do anything about it because 
they are afraid to see the doctor to find out what the results are, the 
fear. By the time that they go to the doctor because there are other 
problems, complications, then the prognosis is not good, and it will be 
a mastectomy or even death. And the doctor said, ``Duke, what you can 
do is get out the word for early checks and have men and women do the 
self-checks and get the word early.''
  But some of the research, they even have cryogenics, where they can 
take the prostate and insert a tube that basically freezes the 
prostate. It looks rewarding. All the numbers are not out on that.
  They also for quite a few years have been able to implant nuclear 
rods within the prostate itself. Now, that did not sound too neat, but 
it is not that big, I guess. But before, they did not have guidance 
control, so that many of the surrounding areas were damaged in the 
prostate by inserting the nuclear. Now with the sonogram, they can 
precisely pick the area of where they want to go in and place the rods 
to kill the cancer cells. Still, there is a percentage, you have got to 
get 100 percent of the cells, and they cannot, of course, guarantee 
that, and there are figures and numbers that you can check to see what 
the different things are.
  Another point is that the Speaker of the House has said that we want 
to invest money in NIH for medical research. Well, Mr. Speaker, I would 
like to give a few figures here. This is a chart that shows prostate 
cancer issues, and they need your support. This is from the surgeons. 
The message is that prostate cancer is the leading cancer diagnosed and 
second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in American men. The 
second-leading cause of deaths of American men is prostate cancer.
  Per diagnosed case, research for prostate cancer is one of the least 
funded priorities. I would like to submit this chart, Mr. Speaker, 
because on this chart you can see way down here in the bottom, $450 
million, where breast cancer is funded at $2.3 billion, and AIDS is 
funded at $23 billion. Now, what are the mortality rates in this? If 
you look, AIDS accounts for 44,000 deaths in the United States, 44,000 
deaths in the United States per year. Breast cancer is 43,900, almost 
44,000. Prostate cancer, 42,000 men will die of cancer every single 
year in the United States. Over 250,000 men in the United States will 
be diagnosed with prostate cancer, yet the proportion of funding is so 
low that cancer research is not carried out in a degree in prostate 
cancer, but yet it is second only to AIDS and breast cancer. That is a 
disaster, and we need to change that.

                Prostate Cancer Issues Need Your Support


                              Did you Know

       Prostate cancer is the leading cancer diagnosed and the 
     second leading cause of cancer related deaths in American 
     men.
       Per diagnosed case, research for prostate cancer is one of 
     the least funded priorities at the National Institutes of 
     Health (NIH).
       Medicare does not reimburse for all FDA approved prostate 
     cancer treatments, such as oral hormonal therapies.


                            What you can do?

       The American Foundation for Urologic Disease is dedicated 
     to increasing awareness and research funding for the urologic 
     diseases and disorders through various state and national 
     advocacy efforts. You can help ensure that prostate cancer 
     issues get the attention they deserve in Congress by 
     contacting your state and national legislators by: Meeting 
     with them in their local offices; inviting them to address 
     your local support group and other organizations; writing and 
     calling their local and national offices.


                              The Message

       Prostate cancer is the leading cancer threat to American 
     men. Estimates show that in 1997, 210,000 men will be 
     diagnosed with it and 41,800 men will die from it. Federal 
     research allocations for prostate cancer must appropriately 
     reflect the incidence and mortality of the disease.

[[Page H7478]]

                               Good News

       Through increased advocacy efforts, $45 million was 
     allocated to prostate cancer research through the Department 
     of Defense (DOD) in 1996 and 1997. This money will fund 1998 
     and 1999 prostate cancer research projects, as approved by 
     the DOD.


                             1997 Incidence

       Prostate Cancer--210,000.
       Breast Cancer--180,200.
       AIDS--66,000.


                             1997 Mortality

       Prostate Cancer--41,800.
       Breast Cancer--43,900.
       AIDS--44,000.


                     1997 NIH Research Allocations

       AIDS--$23 billion.
       Breast Cancer--$2.3 billion.
       Prostate Cancer--$450 million.
     Mortality--Cost per incidence
       AIDS--$34,090.
       Breast Cancer--$9,328.
       Prostate Cancer--$2,263.


                    Contact Congressional Leadership

       The Honorable Ted Stevens, The United States Senate, 
     Washington, D.C. 20510, telephone: 202-224-3004, fax: 202-
     224-2354.
       The Honorable Dick Armey, U.S. House of Representatives, 
     Washington, D.C. 20515, telephone: 202-225-7772.
       The Honorable Trent Lott, The United States Senate, 
     Washington, D.C. 20510, telephone: 202-224-6253.
       The Honorable Newt Gingrich, U.S. House of Representatives, 
     Washington, D.C. 20515, telephone: 202-225-4501, fax: 202-
     225-4656.
       The Honorable Bob Livingston, U.S. House of 
     Representatives, Washington, D.C. 20515, telephone: 202-225-
     3015, fax: 202-225-0739.


               By the Numbers--Prostate Cancer in America

       209,000--The number of American men who were diagnosed with 
     prostate cancer in 1997.
       41,800--The number of American men who died of prostate 
     cancer in 1997.
       20%--The percentage of all non-skin cancer cases that are 
     of the prostate.
       3.6%--The percentage of all federal cancer research funding 
     dedicated to prostate cancer research.
       $250 million--The amount of promising prostate cancer 
     research that was not conducted in 1997 due to lack of 
     funding.

  The Speaker has talked about putting more funds into NIH, and we have 
every year, because he feels that is one of the areas, even though I 
believe in states' rights, where individual states cannot conduct the 
research that we need in all of the diseases.
  For example, diabetes takes up about 23 to 27 percent of the Medicare 
bill. Yet just by early detection of diabetes we can save over two-
thirds of the blindness, two-thirds of the amputations, two-thirds of 
the removal of kidneys, and you can imagine what kidney dialysis costs 
and the quality of living costs of different people. So it is a 
disaster.
  I would like to submit this chart, Mr. Speaker, because it is very, 
very important, the low cost and low funding, and one of the messages 
is that we want to increase the cost not only across the board for 
prostate cancer, but for breast cancer, for diabetes and the others as 
well, and have a more equitable funding for prostate cancer.
  Why is this important? Well, there is a very famous guy that I think 
most people on the floor in both bodies would recognize, his name is 
Len Dawson. He is a member of the NFL Hall of Fame, a quarterback, now 
a broadcaster fine-tuning his golf game. You can watch him at different 
times. But he puts out a program called ``Keep Your Health up to Par.'' 
Len Dawson and Chi Chi Rodriguez, a very famous golfer, go about, along 
with Arnold Palmer, and talk about some of the same very things that I 
am talking about here tonight.

                              {time}  1915

  Len and his wife, Linda, do not know much about prostate cancer, did 
not know, until he was diagnosed in 1992. It began when Linda read an 
article about a former U.S. Senator, Bob Dole, and his own battle with 
prostate cancer. Mr. Speaker, the day that I found out that I had 
cancer I called Senator Dole and he sat down and talked to me and went 
through the different options just like the doctor did. Find a friend 
if you are diagnosed. Get a message. Talk to the Cancer Society.
  But, in the same edition of the paper, she saw an advertisement about 
a local prostate cancer screening and immediately made Len, that is 
kind of like most of our wives, made Len an appointment. Len was 
reluctant, since 6 months earlier he had an annual checkup and received 
a clean bill of health, including a prostate check, just like I had, 
and he walked out thinking that he was cancer-free. At the screening, 
the physician found the results were abnormal and ordered further tests 
and a biopsy.
  Now, with the PSA, the PSA is only an indicator. One can actually 
have a swollen or an enlarged prostate gland and one can get an 
increase in PSA numbers, or there is different kinds of infections that 
can cause the same thing that can be treated with just antibiotics. It 
is not necessarily cancer. Do not be afraid if your doctor said you 
have an elevated PSA that it is automatically cancer, because in most 
cases, it is not. But the biopsy is the final act in which it is 
determined.
  Lucky for Len, his cancer was caught early, like mine. He was treated 
with a prostatectomy, a radical prostatectomy and today lives a normal 
life. By Dole speaking out about his own experience and Linda's 
persistence, Len's cancer was able to be treated. Len Dawson said, I 
want to let every man know that something as easy as going to the 
doctor regularly can actually save your life; I am living proof. And 
Len Dawson, I would like to say that I am too.
  In 1995 he was again affected by this disease when his older brother 
Ron was diagnosed with an advanced stage of prostate cancer. 
Unfortunately, Ron had not had a checkup in many years and died that 
same year. In 1997, Len learned that another brother, Gilbert, was 
diagnosed with prostate cancer. It has been a dramatic impact on my 
family, Dawson said. I am determined to do what I can to make other 
families, assure that other families are aware of prostate cancer and 
its early warning signs.
  In addition to hosting the HBO show ``Inside the NFL,'' Len Dawson is 
a sportscaster with KMBC-TV in Kansas City, Missouri, and in 1998 he 
will be taking time out of his broadcasting duties to hold a series of 
town meetings addressing the public on prostate health and prostate 
cancer matters.
  Now, if one wants, I do not know if it is legal to give out numbers 
on this, but it is a nonprofit, and it is 1-800-319-8633, Len Dawson 
Hall of Fame on prostate cancer.
  Another legend that is speaking out that was stricken with prostate 
cancer is legend Arnold Palmer, who is again living proof that prostate 
cancer can be defeated. In January 1997 Palmer underwent surgery for 
prostate cancer. Fortunately, his cancer was diagnosed before it spread 
outside the prostate gland. By April of that same year, he was back on 
the golf course, and many of us have seen he is hitting the ball better 
than anyone can do.
  For 18 months before Palmer's cancer was diagnosed, he and his doctor 
were on alert. Palmer's regular checkups indicated an elevated level of 
Prostate-Specific Antigen, or PSA, again a protein in the blood that 
can indicate; can, not necessarily does, but can indicate prostate 
cancer.
  So there is another area in which the doctors, besides having 
radiation, besides having tubes put into someone, whether it is 
cryogenics or even removal, there is a phase, if your Gleason rate is 
very low, between 2 and 10 is the highest, probably between 2 and 5, 
quite often they will set in a monitor and see how the disease is 
progressing.
  ``I would not call what I was feeling afraid or fear,'' Palmer said. 
``I would say that I had some very serious concerns about my health. 
Frightened, no, but very concerned, yes.''
  Palmer joined the ranks of professional golf in 1954 and over the 
years he earned over 92 championships, including Master's titles, 2 
British Opens, 1 U.S. Open, to go along with 61 PGA tour victories. His 
popularity and success led to the formation of Arnie's Army, a large 
audience of adoring fans who follow him to each tournament. As a 
survivor, Palmer is a great advocate of prostate cancer awareness and 
early detection.
  Because of these men, and I got a phone call from some of these 
gentlemen and they asked, Duke, would you do what you can to spread the 
word. If you or someone you love is a male over 50 years of age, this 
year it is again estimated a large number of men, over 200,000 men, 
will be diagnosed with prostate cancer. And one of the things that one 
can do is just as simple as going to your doctor.
  One of the things I think that we need to look into, though, is 
again, in both the bills, the Republican and Democrat bill for health 
care, there is

[[Page H7479]]

different areas that are not covered in each, and one of those is again 
that Medicare does not pay for some of these things.
  For example, I had a gentleman call me and write and say, let me see 
if I can find it here, his letter, I had it right here. Here it is. I 
hear that Medicare will be limiting the PSA test to one per year, and 
Medicare, to cover one screening per year for Medicare-eligible men 
beginning January 1, 2000. This is purely a screening tool, not 
intended to be a treatment regime. However, if a doctor orders a 
screening as part of the diagnosis; for example, if one has a PSA that 
is high and one does not have the surgery, or even after one has the 
surgery and one wants another PSA, the reason is to limit the number of 
tests, but Medicare will pay for it if the doctor takes it as a course 
of action as a diagnosis and needed, and then Medicare will pay for it.
  Mr. Augman's question, who lives in San Diego, was, he says, I would 
be willing to pay for a PSA test out of my own funds, but the law 
prohibits any doctor or medical lab from accepting fee-for-service for 
Medicare patients on procedures covered by Medicare.
  Now, this is an application that many of us vehemently do not like 
within the Medicare bill. It was not placed in there by us, but what it 
does, it limits, if one has cash and one wants to go to a doctor that 
accepts Medicare, one cannot pay that doctor for that particular check. 
I personally think that is wrong. And the response to Mr. Augman is, 
that is correct. Medicare patients cannot pay for services out of their 
own pockets unless the doctor has a contract not to bill Medicare for 2 
years, and again, many of us feel that that is wrong.
  However, if he and his doctors would like an additional PSA test, he 
can get the test and bill Medicare. Should Medicare deny to pay, he can 
pay out of his own pocket. This requires some additional paperwork, but 
it can be done. If he would like assistance, please have him contact me 
at 202-225-5452. That is my office.

  There are many things about prostate cancer. I was in the hospital 
for just about 2 days, and I had Robert Hitchcock, he is a playwright 
that lives in San Diego and he sent me this book, Mr. Speaker. It is 
the only one I have, so I cannot submit it for the Record, but I can 
give the number where it can be found, and I do not get a cut out of 
it. But it is a good book, and it is called ``Love, Sex, and PSA.''
  It is just about everything that one would want to know about 
prostate cancer. From the phone call to the research network that one 
can call if one thinks they have prostate cancer, or different areas, 
different operation techniques, and it talks about some of the problems 
that one may encounter. And in the book, his wife speaks on the problem 
from the female side or the spouse side of how the family can get 
involved, and it is a great book.
  It talks about a catheter that is a pain to have. If one has ever had 
to have one, you have to leave it in there 2 to 3 weeks, and I want to 
say, that was the worst part of this whole thing is having a catheter 
and having to manage this whole thing. When you roll over I guarantee 
it will let you know that it is there.
  My wife told me, kind of being funny, she said honey, with your 
surgery, remember when we had our 2 children? Remember a little 
operation called the episiotomy. She said, do you understand now? I 
looked at her seriously and said, I understand. And men quite often do 
not understand what women go through in childbirth or in different 
operations. And if one wants to get a quick illustration of what that 
means, then that is it.
  Mr. GANSKE. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. CUNNINGHAM. I yield to the gentleman from Iowa.
  Mr. GANSKE. Mr. Speaker, I just want to commend the gentleman for 
coming to the floor and speaking from personal experience about his 
illness with prostate cancer and his treatment. I think all of our 
colleagues should be listening to this. There are a lot of people who 
tune into C-SPAN and watch the Special Orders on the floor. I think the 
gentleman has given an awful lot of good information to people around 
the country today, and I just want to commend the gentleman for drawing 
attention to this second most common cancer in men.
  When I was in medical school it was taught that if a man lived long 
enough, his chances of developing prostate cancer were very high, but 
as the gentleman pointed out, there are many different types of 
treatment for prostate cancer, and after treatment, many, many men can 
expect to live out normal life-spans.
  So I consider the gentleman's commentary today a real public service, 
and I commend the gentleman for sharing his experiences with us.
  Mr. CUNNINGHAM. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman. I am a survivor, 
and I am a very, very fortunate survivor. By early detection, by having 
a good health care system, by having a doctor that is demanding, that 
you go through with all of the tests to check; by having a good surgeon 
and catching it early, one can also eliminate many of the side effects 
that normally go with radical prostatectomy, and that is such things as 
impotence and another is incontinence. And I tell my colleagues, those 
2 things in every day life are very, very important.
  I would like to say too, to the African-Americans that are listening 
tonight, Mr. Speaker, that African-Americans have a much higher 
incidence of prostate cancer. It was interesting. The doctor said that 
those that can be traced with bloodlines directly back to Africa have a 
lower incidence of prostate cancer than those that do not have 
bloodlines that relate directly back to Africa. But yet African-
Americans, at even a much younger age, contact and have a higher 
incidence, not only incidence, but have a higher mortality rate. My 
first thought was that well, maybe it is because many African-Americans 
are poor and they do not have the health care facilities. But this was 
a study done across-the-board with equal health care systems.

                              {time}  1930

  Mr. Speaker, some of these studies, this is another reason why we 
need more money in prostate cancer research is the fact that they say 
that a lot of it can be or they suspect a lot of it is diet, in the 
foods available to different people. If you did not have very much 
money in the household and what you feed your family, you do not have 
salads, good nutrition, fish, the olive oil, instead of some of the 
other things that can cause prostate cancer, then maybe diet is very 
important, and we can change that.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Cummings).
  Mr. CUMMINGS. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman for yielding 
to me, and for raising this issue. I was listening to the gentleman, 
and I just wanted to add a few things.
  I represent the Seventh Congressional District of Maryland, which is 
basically Baltimore city. Of course, we are predominantly an African 
American district. One of the things that has been at the forefront of 
my agenda is dealing with prostate cancer, because it is not unusual 
for me to go to the bank, for example, on weekends, and run into 
African American men, as the gentleman just talked about, who either 
are about to go through some type of procedure for prostate cancer, or 
who have been diagnosed recently, or have had the procedure.
  I just wanted to thank the gentleman for raising the issue. A lot of 
this is about early detection, as I heard the gentleman talk about it a 
little earlier. Certainly we have in our district, in my district, 
Johns Hopkins Hospital, and we have some of the finest physicians in 
the area of dealing with prostate cancer. I just wanted to thank the 
gentleman, to take a moment to thank the gentleman for raising this 
issue, because it is a very, very important issue.
  I see so many African American men who die, and if they had only 
gotten the appropriate detection types of examinations and whatever. A 
lot of it, I think, does go to diet. Dr. Schwartz of Johns Hopkins has 
often talked about that. I think we could save a lot of lives there. I 
just wanted to again express my appreciation.
  Mr. CUNNINGHAM. Mr. Speaker, as I said, at an age over 50 years of 
age, everyone should have an annual check with a PSA, with the 
diagnosis and the different checks. But for African Americans, the 
doctor recommended it at least when you are 45 years of age, because 
there is a higher incidence. There

[[Page H7480]]

is a higher instance of mortality and a higher incidence of younger 
males coming down with prostate cancer.
  I also learned that males can have breast cancer as well, so it is 
not just the prostate check or the genital check, but the complete 
check-up and an annual physical is very helpful.
  The doctor also pointed out to me that Asian Americans have a very 
low incidence of cancer. Again, the studies are important for prostate 
cancer because they think, again, generally the Asian population eats 
the more healthy foods: A lot of fish, salmon, rice, the things that 
are not high in the different kinds of oils. Olive oil is supposed to 
be a good one.
  I went to my check-up after 3 weeks out of surgery this morning, and 
I saw Dr. Christensen, who is my surgeon and a great doctor. I pointed 
out these different foods. I said, how much is there to diet in cancer? 
He said, Duke, there are actually certain foods that cause cancer cells 
to replicate faster. For example, your soy oils and your different 
safflower and all of those kinds of oils, there have been studies to 
show that they actually cause the cancer to multiply faster. Olive oil, 
however, is low in a certain chemical, and so are tomatoes. As a matter 
of fact, cooked tomatoes allow that particular chemical to get into 
your system that actually kills cancer cells. Regular tomatoes are 
good, but he said cooked tomatoes allow that substance to break down.
  It also says here about coffee. I drink 3 or 4 cups of coffee a day. 
Maybe that is the reason I got it in the first place. But I thought the 
response was good from Dr. Christensen, who had a cup of coffee in his 
hand, with all the other surgeons sitting there with cups of coffee. 
Oh, he said oh, no, it cannot be coffee, because we are not giving it 
up. I am not telling people to give up all the things they like in 
life, but at least with moderation, they could take a look at how these 
things affect their life.
  As a matter of fact, in this book there is a number that you can 
order. I would recommend that Members get this book if they have any 
doubts. What I will do is give my number, at 202-225-5452. If Members 
want to call my office, I will get the number where they can get this 
book that tells almost everything that one wants to know about prostate 
cancer, because I cannot find the number within the book here.
  There are other areas: the National Institutes for Health, the Cancer 
Research Society. If you call, in every State there is a cancer support 
group. In every State there are groups that meet, groups of cancer 
patients. I went to one this last weekend. It was very good. Dr. Barken 
in San Diego has a cancer group. As a matter of fact, there is going to 
be a cancer awareness, actually, by Israel Barken, M.D., President of 
the Prostate Cancer Education and Research Foundation, in San Diego, 
California. Every State and almost every city has these support groups. 
I would encourage each and every individual to check in, especially if 
they are diagnosed with cancer. Again, one of the worst things that you 
can have happen to you is the doctor look you in the face and say, 
ma'am, or sir, you have cancer, and it is almost overwhelming in the 
impact that has on your life.
  Through early detection, over 95 percent of prostate cancer victims 
can be saved with good mortality rates. All of the things that people 
dread, like impotence, I will say, that is a big factor, and 
incontinence, all of those things with early detection can be changed 
and saved. Even if they are not, the techniques they have today can 
bring about full, meaningful life for married or unmarried men and 
women in this.
  Mr. Speaker, I would just like to close by saying each man and each 
woman, whether it is breast cancer, whether it is diabetes or prostate 
cancer, we need to support the funds for the research, because we are 
so close in the biotech industries to finding out the answers.
  I would also say that the money for prostate cancer is so low, but 
yet it is the second leading cause in men's death, and in African 
American deaths it is one of the highest and leading causes, second 
only to AIDs.

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