Before you read any further, I must fully disclose that I cannot really grow a mustache, let alone a beard. Last fall, given the timing with Movember (also known as No-Shave November) and the week of third-year Intersessions, where we would not be required to see patients in the clinical setting, some of my classmates and I decided to grow mustaches for a week. On Monday morning, before leaving my apartment, I shaved off whatever facial hair I had outside of my upper lip. Upon arriving to school, I received minimal positive reviews (mostly from my friends sarcastically trying to hype me up), but by far in large I received negative reviews (understandably) from essentially everyone else. It became clear this was not my best look, so by the end of the week, my mustache was gone – and has stayed gone. I still look back at that week and laugh at that attempt. While Movember has become an entertaining nationwide phenomenon over the last few years, the original purpose of the movement has been forgotten at times.
Movember originated in Fitzroy, Australia in 2003, when two friends discussing fashion trends realized that the mustache had seemingly fallen out of favor. They decided to bring it back with 28 others and focus the campaign on men’s health and prostate cancer. The following year the movement spread beyond the original friend group. In 2004, 480 individuals participated, and after teaming up with the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia (PCFA), the Movember movement raised almost $41,000 [1]. At the time, this was the largest donation the PCFA had ever received. In 2005, the movement took off, with 9,315 participants raising nearly $900,000. Movember reached New Zealand in 2006 and by 2007; it had participants in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and Spain. At this point, they had formed partnerships with numerous prostate cancer foundations in each of these countries, such as the Prostate Cancer Foundation in the United States.
Over the years, Movember expanded to include over 20 countries with 5.5 million participants and an estimated $837 million [1]. The organization has been an instrumental source in funding significant advances in prostate cancer research, such as the Prostate Cancer Genome Mapping Project. The focus of the organization has evolved from primarily prostate cancer to also include testicular cancer, mental health, and physical inactivity [1]. Additionally, in 2016, Movember united with the National Breast Cancer Foundation of Australia to identify genetic similarities in prostate, breast, and ovarian cancers [1].
The decision to revive the mustache may have initially been done for entertainment, but the focus quickly shifted to prostate cancer for a reason. Prostate cancer is currently the second most common cancer in men (14.5%) and also the second biggest cancer killer in men with 33,330 male deaths in 2019 [2]. In the United States, the current lifetime risk for prostate cancer in men is 1 in 9 [2]. Regarding prostate cancer screening, the U.S. Preventative Services Task Force (USPSTF) states “for men staged 55 to 69 years, the decision to undergo period prostate-specific antigen (PSA)-based screening should be an individual one” and that those over 70 should not be screened [3]. Patients should base the decision to potentially be screened on family history, genetics, race/ethnicity, comorbid conditions, and discussions with their physician as unnecessary screening could lead to false positives, overdiagnosis, and overtreatment [4]. As awareness of prostate cancer has increased, so have research efforts towards the disease. In 2019, the PREDICT Prostate model was developed. This is an individualized prognostic tool that can estimate the likelihood of survival in 10-15 years after the diagnosis of nonmetastatic prostate cancer [5]. On top of this, the model can give an estimate of the harms associated with treating each case with conservative treatment, prostatectomy, or radiation therapy [5]. A tool like the PREDICT model can enable clinicians and patients to both make educated and informed decisions each step of the way through treatment.
While there have been notable advances in the study of prostate cancer, the disease continues to impact thousands of families each year. As the second most common cancer in men and the second biggest cancer killer in men, it is a very real issue that continues to take men from their loved ones every day. Growing (or attempting to grow) a mustache may not appear to be a significant step in the battle against prostate cancer, but the decision by 30 people to grow mustaches in 2003 ultimately has produced $800 million in the time since then. So, if you see my subpar mustache make an appearance in the next few months, now you know why.
- Movember. 2020. Movember. [online] Available at: <https://us.movember.com/about/history> [Accessed 11 September 2020].
- Siegel R, Miller K, Jemal A. Cancer statistics, 2020. CA Cancer J Clin. 2020;70(1):7-30.
- Recommendation: Prostate Cancer: Screening | United States Preventive Services Taskforce. Uspreventiveservicestaskforce.org. https://www.uspreventiveservicestaskforce.org/uspstf/recommendation/prostate-cancer-screening. Published 2020. Accessed September 11, 2020.
- Carter H. Prostate Cancers in Men with Low PSA Levels — Must We Find Them?. New England Journal of Medicine. 2004;350(22):2292-2294. doi:10.1056/nejme048003
- Thurtle D, Greenberg D, Lee L, Huang H, Pharoah P, Gnanapragasam V. Individual prognosis at diagnosis in nonmetastatic prostate cancer: Development and external validation of the PREDICT Prostate multivariable model. PLoS Med. 2019;16(3):e1002758. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1002758
Roy Bisht is a member of The University of Arizona College of Medicine - Phoenix, Class of 2021. He is from the Bay Area and graduated from the University of California, Irvine in 2016 with a degree in Biological Sciences. His interests include baseball, football, longboarding, and collecting sneakers.