The Cancer Institute of NSW statistics state that about 760 men in Lake Macquarie and 500 in Newcastle are diagnosed with prostate cancer each year.

Alarmingly, the figures also show that men in the Hunter have the state’s highest mortality rate from the curable cancer: a rate more than 40 per cent higher compared to men in Sydney.

To try and reduce these numbers, The Newcastle Prostate Cancer Centre – a joint project between the Hunter Prostate Survivor Alliance, The University of Newcastle and Hunter Medical Research Institute – opened this week in Waratah.

It is the first facility of its kind in the Hunter with researchers from the university and institute working with trained counsellors and staff from the alliance, which will receive $450,000 over the next three years from the State Government to run the centre.

Alliance chairman and prostate cancer survivor Ron Bender said the group was conducting two of the largest prostate cancer research projects in the Southern Hemisphere to find why the Hunter had such a poor survival rate and how to best treat the disease.

“Incidents of prostate cancer in the Hunter are growing and it’s due to increasing awareness and the Little Prick campaign – the blood test, which can let you know if there is a problem with the prostate.

“It doesn’t diagnose cancer but if there is something wrong, blokes can then get a biopsy and have the cancer detected much earlier.

“The high mortality rate has come from blokes not discovering it (prostate cancer) until they develop more severe symptoms and it is significantly harder to treat.”

Although prostate and breast cancer figures are similar, prostate cancer does not receive the same publicity.

Calvary Mater Hospital senior staff specialist Dr Anne Capp, who is also a member of the HMRI Cancer Research Program, said funding for prostate cancer was yet to reach the level of sophistication that breast cancer received.

“Breast cancer receives widespread support from several large charity organisations and there is a far greater public awareness.

“Any woman over 50 can receive a free mammogram, however a prostate check has a small cost attached.

“If prostate cancer is detected early, treatments are many and varied, ranging from radical surgery and radiotherapy for healthy men in their 50s to hormone therapies in more advanced cases.”

To contact the Hunter Prostate Survivor Alliance phone 1300 881 826 or drop into the Newcastle Prostate Cancer Centre at 22 Turton Road, Waratah.