A man is diagnosed with prostate cancer every two and half minutes and dies from it every 19 minutes.

It's the most common non-skin cancer in America affecting one in six men.

But still the male population does not get tested for prostate cancer as regularly as they should.

That's why Dr. Michael O'Leary, a professor of surgery at Harvard and a senior Urologic surgeon at Brigham and Women's Hospital, and the Bermuda Cancer and Health Centre are urging men on the Island to visit their primary doctors.

For the past four years, Dr. O'Leary has been visiting the Island to try and get the message across to the Island's male population.

It's a population that could be more affected by the cancer than in the US because it generally affects men of African descent more than others, according to Dr. O'Leary.

He said: "I have been doing this for the last four or five years — to come and talk to the men on the Island about prostate disease and prostate cancer.

"It should be of concern here because there are so many men with African heritage and it's more prevalent in this population.

"There's also no question that men are more willing to talk about health issues then four or five years ago and that's the focus of the meeting."

He added that prostate cancer needed to start having the same coverage and prevalence as that of breast cancer.

Women now, according to Dr. O'Leary are aware of the checkups they need and the signs and symptoms of the disease because of the media blitz.

"There's a lot of reasons to think of the disease in the same way as Breast cancer and one of the things we have tried to do is to take a chapter out of the breast cancer book," he added.

"Men know they need to get checked, but they don't."

The past four years of meetings and messages from the Bermuda Cancer and Health Centre, however, must be starting to work with more than 160 men at the meeting with Dr. O'Leary and local urologist Dr. Charles Dyer, last week.

Pauline Girling, the marketing, PR and fundraising director of the Bermuda Cancer and Health said they were thrilled with the turnout.

She said: "It really did exceed our expectations. It was a short presentation with Dr. O'Leary and Dr. Dyer.

A large percentage of the attendees came from the 40 plus age bracket which is the target population we need because they just need to ask doctors about this."

Though prostate cancer is one of the most prevalent diseases it is also one of the most curable if it is caught in its early stages.

That's why a man over the age of 40 who has African heritage should be checked annually by their primary doctor.

All men — regardless of racial background — should be checked annually over the age of 50.

According to Dr. O'Leary the problem with encouraging men to get checked, which requires a blood test and a digital rectal exam, is that they are not used to internal exams.

He added: "A lot of men are reluctant to do it, but it's not painful. It's easy and only takes 10 seconds. Women are used to having internal exams, but men are not.

"It's important for men to get checked, because if it's found early 90 to 95 percent recovery rate. In the US there are 40,000 deaths a year from prostate cancer.

"Numbers are still high because they don't get it detected early."