Austell man tries to break down wall of silence around prostate cancer

Sep. 29—When David Moffett went to his doctor for a routine checkup, he felt no pain, had no outward symptoms.

And yet bloodwork suggested he might have prostate cancer. Further testing confirmed it.

Two years later, Moffett, an Austell resident, combat veteran, former law enforcement officer and operations coordinator at Wellstar Health System, is in full recovery. But he hasn't put his battle with prostate cancer behind him. On the contrary, he's trying to raise awareness about the diagnosis and the impact it can have on men's lives, things he wishes his relatives had told him about.

"My dad had prostate cancer. He never talked to me about it," Moffett said, "My stepfather had prostate cancer. He never talked about it to me. And my grandfather on my mother's side had prostate cancer and he never talked about it — and we were all close. So for me, there was a missing component."

Diagnosis

When Moffett, now 53, was told his prostate-specific antigens were outside the normal range, he underwent a physical exam. The doctor felt nodules, and ordered a biopsy. Five of the 12 samples taken were cancerous.

"I was shocked because I thought I was pretty healthy," he recalled.

When a man is diagnosed with prostate cancer, he has two options, according to Dr. Paymon Nourparvar, the urologist at Wellstar Health System who treated Moffett: surgery or radiation, both of which can have a dramatic impact on a patient's quality of life.

When he first meets with men who've been recently diagnosed, "a lot of it is just trying to understand what they understand about their disease," he said.

Treatments have come a long way in the past 30 years, Nourparvar said, but public perception of the relative risks and benefits of each option haven't caught up.

The prostate "sits like a doughnut" around the opening of the bladder and the urethra, according to Nourparvar. Removing it damages nerves that control urination and erections.

"So, the two common consequences after the surgery for every guy is, they lose their ability to control urination, so they're wearing, basically, diapers or pads for a period of time," he said, "and they lose their ability to have erections naturally on their own."

Urinary control typically comes back within a year, according to Nourparvar, "but not for every guy." Erections can come back within two years, "but not for most guys," who turn to drugs like Viagra or Cialis for help.

"And so that's where it's really tough for young, healthy guys," Nourparvar said. "They're basically giving up their sex life, to some degree, so it affects the partner as well. And then the diaper, that's a tough pill to swallow."

Radiation has similar side effects, though "to a much lesser extent" — at least initially. The "killing effect" of radiation doesn't end with the therapy, and problems can often surface years down the road, Nourpavar said. In addition, radiation therapy is often administered in conjunction with androgen deprivation therapy, which comes with its own side effects.

Ultimately, Moffett chose surgery, not wanting to be out of work for the several weeks it would take to undergo radiation therapy.

AdvocacyShortly after his return to work, a colleague approached him, and said a friend of his was also dealing with prostate cancer. Therein, he found a new mission.

"God ... just put it on my heart to say, 'Wow, this is something that needs to be talked about,'" he said.

Since his surgery, Moffet has wondered why his relatives who'd gone through the very same thing had never spoken about it.

"Did they feel like they were lesser men and that they had no value? Did they feel like if they told me, I would look at them differently?" he wondered. "As men we walk around like we're superheroes, you know, that bravado that, you know, 'I take care of my family,' or, you know, 'I'm leading my company,' or 'I'm leading my team' or whatever it may be. And I used to be that guy as well, you know, being in the Marines, a combat vet, being in law enforcement.

"So I realized, those are some of the things that were probably holding me back from really truly getting the help that I really needed," Moffet continued. "And so I realized in this process that the greatest strength in men is their vulnerability."

He founded a support group that meets monthly at the Wellstar Development Center and has been attended in the past by as many as 30 men at once. Nurses at Wellstar will often refer prostate cancer patients to him.

And while the common thread among men in his support group is, of course, their diagnosis, it doesn't limit their meetings.

"We also talk about other issues that men deal with," he said. "So it allows men to feel comfortable in that setting, whether to cry, whether to get mad, whether to get angry, talk about things that maybe they're not even telling their wife."

For more information about his support group, email dmoffprostateawareness@yahoo.com.

"I tell everybody if one person wants to come, I'm going to be there," Moffett said. "I'm going to open the doors."

RecommendationsNourparvar said there are different recommendations for men depending on their risk-level. High risk men have a first-degree relative who has been diagnosed with prostate cancer. Very high-risk men have had multiple family members.

Very high-risk men should get an annual prostate-specific antigen screening beginning at age 40. High risk men should get the screening each year beginning at age 45. Everyone else can wait until age 50.

And those tests save lives: When caught at stage 2 or earlier, patients have a 99% survival rate.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, for every 100 men in the United States, about 13 will get prostate cancer and two or three will die from it.