DEAR ABBY: Like 100,000 other men in the United States each year, I was diagnosed recently as having cancer of the prostate through the use of a digital examination, a blood test for the measurement of prostatic-specific antigen, and an ultrasound examination of the prostate. Soon after, I went to the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore for surgery, where Dr. Patrick Walsh has devised a procedure for the removal of cancerous prostates with a nerve-sparing technique, leaving most of his patients potent and continent. His procedure is widely used by other urologists.
One urologist told me that had I not had the prostatic- specific antigen test and the ultrasound examination, the detection of the malignancy through a digital examination alone would have taken 10 years, at which time I would have been dead. Instead, I am cancer-free and in perfect health because of early detection. -- THOMAS P. SLAVENS, PROFESSOR, THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
DEAR DR. SLAVENS: Thank you for a valuable letter.