Get your prostate checked!

The blogosphere is awash today with tributes to Dennis Hopper, extolling his film career.  Few of them devote much time to the cause of his death - metastatic prostate cancer.  This condition, while still somewhat difficult to treat, is amenable to early diagnosis via digital rectal exam or serum prostate specific antigen.

If you are a male reading this, especially if you have male pattern balding or a positive family history, don't neglect these simple tests.  They are not that onerous.

I offer this advice as a 7+ year survivor of locally invasive prostate cancer, discovered early because a positive family history prompted me to start getting serial PSAs beginning in my early 50s.

Get it done.

btw - the top photo is DaVinci's St. John the Baptist.  Bottom photo source credit lost.