LEARNING A LESSON IN HOW TO SURVIVE PROSTATE CANCER.

Byline: - Carol Bidwell

Billed as ``a television journey that may save a life,'' an hourlong documentary, ``Prostate Cancer: A Journey of Hope,'' will air at 9 p.m. Friday on KCET (Channel 28).

Narrated by retired Army Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf, himself a prostate cancer survivor, the show follows several men, their families and their doctors through their diagnosis and battle with the disease. The stories explore everything from traditional treatment options - surgery, radiation and chemotherapy - to experimental immunotherapies such as vaccines and antibody-based treatments.

The message of the show, a joint project of the Cancer Research Institute and the American Cancer Society, is simple: Testing is painless and can detect a deadly cancer that may show no symptoms until it's inoperable.

Prostate cancer detected early usually is curable.

It's not a rare disease, either. According to the CRI, 179,000 American men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer this year, and almost 37,000 of them will die by the end of the year. One in five men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during his lifetime, and African-American men are twice as likely as white men to suffer from the disease. But, when diagnosed and treated, more than 90 percent of men with prostate cancer survive at least five more years.

The CRI recommends that PSA (prostate-specific antigen) and digital rectal examinations be conducted annually, beginning at age 50, to men expected to live at least another 10 years and to younger men who are in high-risk groups, including African-Americans and men with a family history of prostate cancer.

A toll-free phone number shown at the end of the program - [phone] - is connected to an American Cancer Society hot line viewers can call to request free publications on prostate cancer.

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Photo

Photo: Dr. Andrew C. von Eschenbach, left, a veteran in the treatment and research of cancer, appears in ``Prostate Cancer: A Journey of Hope.''