Last week, ESPN anchor Jay Harris, 60, announced on Good Morning America (GMA) that he’d been diagnosed with prostate cancer.

 

In an essay published in ESPN Front Row, the veteran SportsCenter anchor shared that he has a family history of prostate cancer and emphasized the importance of discussing health with friends and family.

 

He also shed light on racial disparities impacting prostate cancer diagnoses.

 

 

“It’s jarring news for sure, yet unfortunately, it’s not unexpected, given my family history and demographic,” Harris wrote. "Prostate cancer disproportionately affects Black men. My dad had a bout with prostate cancer, which he won.”

 

Harris underwent surgery this week and will return to work “in a month or so,” depending on what is found during the surgery. A recent PET scan, however, showed no sign of cancer spreading, he said.

 

“My goal in sharing this is to join the many others who also want to normalize this conversation and hopefully provide a bit of guidance and preparation, just as it has been offered to me,” Harris wrote.

 

 

About 313,780 new cases of prostate cancer will be diagnosed this year, and 35,770 people will die of it, according to the American Cancer Society.

 

Black men have a significantly higher risk of developing and dying of prostate cancer compared with men of other races. In fact, one in six Black men will develop prostate cancer during their lifetime compared with one in eight men overall.

 

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer among men after skin cancer, but its death rate is relatively low. Screening can detect aggressive prostate cancer early, allowing for more effective treatment, but routine testing can also find slow-growing precancer or malignancies that will never become life-threatening.

 

In his essay, Harris thanked his friends at ESPN and the V Foundation for Cancer Research, a nonprofit dedicated to finding a cure for cancer. Founded in 1993 by ESPN and the late ESPN broadcaster Jim Valvano, the organization has raised over $400 million for cancer research.

 

 

To read more, click #Prostate Cancer or go to Cancer Health’s Basics on Prostate Cancer. It reads in part:

 

What are the risk factors for prostate cancer?
The major risk factors for prostate cancer are genetics and family history. Studies looking at the link between prostate cancer and a diet high in red meat, chemical exposures including smoking, sexually transmitted infections and having had a vasectomy have produced conflicting results.

 

What are the symptoms of prostate cancer?
Usually early-stage prostate cancer, when tumors are small, causes few or no symptoms. As cancer progresses, some men may experience symptoms including: 

 

  • A frequent urge to urinate;
  • Difficulty urinating;
  • Blood in the urine or semen;
  • Difficulty getting an erection;
  • Pain in the lower back and hips.

 

Some of these symptoms may also be caused by noncancerous enlargement of the prostate, known as benign prostatic hyperplasia. Men with metastatic prostate cancer may experience other symptoms, such as bone pain, as the cancer spreads.