News 14 | 24 Hour Local News | HEADLINES | Singer's death shines light on prostate cancer

December 18, 2007

CHARLOTTE -- Singer and songwriter Dan Fogelberg died Sunday at his home in Maine after battling

prostate cancer. He was 56.

Fogelberg discovered he had advanced prostate cancer in 2004. Doctors

believe if his condition had been caught earlier, he may have survived.

" He would have needed to be diagnosed in his 40s -- 10 years ago

-- to be curable,” said Dr. Teigland, chairman of urology at Carolinas Medical Center.

An advocate of early detection screenings, Fogelberg begged his fans to get

screened. His plea still visible on his Web site. Doctors say prostate cancer is the most common

cancer, other than skin cancer, in American men.

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Teigland says the key to curing prostate cancer is to find it before it

spreads from the prostate. To do that, doctors recommend men over the age of 40

get a prostate screening or PSA test.

" If you have a family history, if you have a father that died of

prostate cancer or a brother that was diagnosed or even a grandfather, you

should probably have your first PSA at 40 or 45,” Teigland said.

Teigland stresses that even if you don’t have a family history,

it is important to get checked in your 40s.

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