Dr. Schlegel (Department Chairman) of Cornell Urology discusses a question they face: Can prostate cancer be prevented? They discuss the role of race, diet, genetic profile and review important steps we can take to decrease our risk of prostate cancer.

The most important thing to prevent prostate cancer is to pick your parents properly. Much of the risk that we see in terms of genetics translates into race, so men are at increased risk if they are African-american, and that's probably a genetic basis to it. You look at most cancers, almost anything that increase reactive oxygen, or fatty acids, and that's a parallel risk to what we see with heart disease. A diet that is rich in fatty foods will increase your risk for prostate cancer, just like it increases your risk for heart disease. Having a reasonable diet that is avoiding excess red meat, excess fatty foods, is probably the best thing you can do to decrease your risk of developing prostate cancer.