CoxHealth launches nonprofit to address prostate cancer

Years in the making, yesterday CoxHealth launched Prostate Cancer Organization of the Ozarks, a subsidiary of the CoxHealth Foundation.

“It’s taken me two and a half years to get legs under this,” said Dr. Abe Abdalla, medical director of oncology at CoxHealth. “The goal is to create a resource center, a one-stop shop for men to get the information and help they need.”

The creation of the nonprofit comes on the heels of a recent study by Northwestern University that found the number of metastatic prostate cancer cases in men climbed 72 percent the last 10 years, according to a news release.

With education as PCOO’s main mission, Abdalla hopes to soon hire a prostate cancer navigator to answer questions and assist patients and families following a diagnosis.

“Nobody cares about cancer until they are diagnosed,” he said. “The public perception for prostate cancer is that it’s not a huge problem anymore, [that] it’s unimportant, but it is. Men need to know how to protect their health without stigma.”

According to the release, CoxHealth’s current treatment options include robotic surgery, image guidance radiation therapy, chemotherapy and hormone therapy. But Abdalla is most enthusiastic about the prostate seed implant program, in which radioactive, concentrated pellets are implanted in the prostate. After a few months, the pellets become inert. A recent study by the Springfield-based health care system found a 97.8 percent cure rate in early stage prostate cancer among its patients with the procedure.

“That’s higher than the national average,” Abdalla said. “There are about 180,000 cases of prostate cancer a year, comparable with breast cancer. If we can catch them early, they can be treated.”

Abdalla said the CoxHealth Foundation has hosted multiple fundraisers leading up to the launch, but he was unsure where a final operating budget would land.

“We are just small right now, just starting, but eventually, I would think it would be similar to (Breast Cancer Foundation of the Ozarks),” he said. “Will that be anytime soon? No. That has taken them 20 years to build up.”

According to Springfield Business Journal archives, BCFO reported 2015 annual revenue of roughly $1.5 million.

Abdalla hopes PCOO can help patients pay for medications, needed treatments and even family housing.
 
According to the American Cancer Society, about one man in seven will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during his lifetime. It is the second-leading cause of death in American men, behind lung cancer, with roughly 26,000 men dying each year, or about one in 39.