How Bad Is Stage 3 Prostate Cancer

If Your Prostate Cancer Comes Back

If your cancer goes into remission but later returns, follow-up treatments will depend on where the cancer is located and which treatments youâve already tried.

• If the cancer is contained in your prostate, surgery or a second attempt at radiation is suggested. If you’ve had a radical prostatectomy, radiation therapy is a good option. If you had radiation, radical prostatectomy might be the best approach. Cryosurgery might also be an option.

• If the cancer has spread to other parts of your body, hormone therapy might be the most effective treatment. External or IV radiation therapy or bisphosphonate drugs can relieve your bone pain.

What Does It Mean When There Are Different Core Samples With Different Gleason Scores

Cores may be samples from different areas of the same tumor or different tumors in the prostate. Because the grade may vary within the same tumor or between different tumors, different samples taken from your prostate may have different Gleason Scores. Typically, the highest Gleason Score will be the one used by your doctor for predicting your prognosis and deciding treatment.;

Surgically Removing The Prostate Gland

A radical prostatectomy is the surgical removal of your prostate gland. This treatment is an option for curing prostate cancer that has not spread beyond the prostate or has not spread very far.

Like any operation, this surgery carries some risks.

A recent trial showed possible long-term side effects of radical prostatectomy may include an inability to get an erection and urinary incontinence.

Before having any treatment, 67% of men said they could get erections firm enough for intercourse.

When the men who had a radical prostatectomy were asked again after 6 months, this had decreased to 12%. When asked again after 6 years, it had slightly improved to 17%.

For urinary incontinence, 1% of men said they used absorbent pads before having any treatment.

When the men who had a radical prostatectomy were asked again after 6 months, this had increased to 46%. After 6 years, this had improved to 17%.

Out of the men who were actively monitored instead, 4% were using absorbent pads at 6 months and 8% after 6 years.

In extremely rare cases, problems arising after surgery can be fatal.

It’s possible that prostate cancer can come back again after treatment. Your doctor should be able to explain the risk of your cancer coming back after treatment, based on things like your PSA level and the stage of your cancer.

After a radical prostatectomy, you’ll no longer ejaculate during sex. This means you will not be able to have a child through sexual intercourse.

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Tests To Identify Prostate Cancer Stage

After a prostate cancer diagnosis, your doctor will do tests to see how far the cancer has spread. Not all men need every test. It depends on the results of your biopsy, a test that checks tissue from your prostate gland for cancer. Tests that help your doctor figure out the stage of your prostate cancer include:

• CT scan of the abdomen and pelvis to see if the cancer has spread
• Nuclear medicine bone scan to see if the cancer has spread to your bones
• Surgery to check the lymph nodes in your pelvis for prostate cancer spread

General Prostate Cancer Survival Rate

According to the American Cancer Society:

• The relative 5-year survival rate is nearly 100%
• The relative 10-year survival rate is 98%
• The 15-year relative survival rate is 91%

Note: Relative survival rate means the percentage of patients who live amount of years after their initial diagnosis.

Keep in mind, however, that because the compiled list figures are of cancers diagnosed up to 15 years ago, you may have an even greater chance of survival than these indicate due to advances in prostate cancer treatment technology

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Quality Of Life With Advanced Stage Prostate Cancer

Since Huggins and Hodges won a Nobel Prize in 1966 for their work describing the relationship between testosterone and prostate cancer, androgen deprivation has continued to be an important component in the treatment of advanced prostate cancer. It is associated, however, with significant cost in terms of morbidity as well as economics. Side effects of androgen deprivation therapy include hot flashes, osteoporosis, loss of libido or impotence, and psychological effects such as depression, memory difficulties, or emotional lability. Recently Harle and colleagues reported insulin resistance, hyperglycemia, metabolic syndrome, and metabolic complications being associated with castration and thus being responsible for increased cardiovascular mortality in this population.

Because of the palliative nature of androgen ablation, quality of life is an important component of evaluating competing therapies. Intermittent androgen deprivation is one approach to hormonal therapy that has been developed with the aim of minimizing the negative effects of therapy while maximizing clinical benefits and the patients quality of life. It can be used in any clinical situation where continuous androgen deprivation treatment could be applied.

What Does It Mean To Have A Gleason Score Of 6 Or 7 Or 8

The lowest Gleason Score of a cancer found on a prostate biopsy is 6. These cancers may be called well-differentiated or low-grade and are likely to be less aggressive – they tend to grow and spread slowly.;

Cancers with Gleason Scores of 8 to 10 may be called poorly differentiated or high grade. ;These cancers tend to be aggressive, meaning they are likely to grow and spread more quickly.

Cancers with a Gleason Score of 7 may be called moderately differentiated or intermediate grade. ;The rate at which they grow and spread tends to be in between the other 2.

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Stage 4 Prostate Cancer Treatment

This is the last stage of prostate cancer and describes a tumor that has spread beyond the seminal vesicles to nearby tissues or organs, such as the bladder, rectum, lymph nodes or bones. At this point, treatment of the whole body with hormonal therapy or systemic therapy is the mainstay of stage 4 prostate cancer treatment. Local therapy with surgery or radiation therapy may be needed to help control symptoms. Proton radiation treatment may be used for advanced or late-stage prostate cancer to shrink tumors or control pain. While treatment can only cure a small percentage of T4 tumors, treatment may still be recommended to prolong or improve quality of life. For these distant stage cancers, the 5-year survival rate is 29%.

Stage 3 Pericardial And Testicular Mesothelioma

Doctors and researchers do not clearly define stage 3 pericardial or testicular mesothelioma due to their rare nature.;

Only 1% to 2% of mesothelioma cases are pericardial, which means cancer forms within the sac that protects the heart. Therefore, a diagnosis for this disease is unlikely until the late stages, after metastasis to the lungs or chest cavity.

Doctors evaluate testicular mesothelioma tumor characteristics by using staging guidelines for general testicular cancer. For example, doctors more commonly refer to stage 3 testicular mesothelioma as late-stage cancer. This description indicates that cancer has spread beyond the lining of the testicles to other tissues such as lymph nodes or bone.

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Prostate Cancer Is A Disease In Which Malignant Cells Form In The Tissues Of The Prostate

The prostate is agland in the malereproductive system. It lies just below the bladder and in front of the rectum . It is about the size of a walnut and surrounds part of the urethra . The prostate gland makes fluid that is part of the semen.

Prostate cancer is most common in older men. In the U.S., about 1 out of 5 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer.

Stage 3 Diagnostic Criteria

While we talk about stage 3 cancers as one monstrous thing, their diagnosis differs drastically based on cancer type. Generally, a stage 3 cancer diagnosis requires one or more of three features:

• Tumor growth beyond a specific size
• Spread to a specific set of nearby lymph nodes
• Extension of the tumor into nearby structures

Once diagnosed, a cancer stage never changes. Even if the doctor re-stages the cancer diagnosis, or it recurs , they keep the initial staging diagnosis.

The doctor will add the new staging diagnosis to the initial stage and differentiate it with letterslike c for clinical, p for pathological , or after treatments .

Some stage 3 cancers are subdivided to give a more precise classification. These sub-stages will differ based on the specific cancerous organ. For example, stage 3 breast cancer has three subcategories:

• The tumor is smaller than 5 centimeters but has spread to 4-9 nodes.;
• The tumor is larger than 5 cm and has spread to 1 to 9 nodes.

3B: The tumor is any size but has invaded the chest wall or breast skin and is swollen, inflamed, or has ulcers. It may have also invaded up to 9 nearby nodes

3C: The tumor can be any size but has spread to either: 10 or more lymph nodes, nodes near the collar bones, or lymph nodes near the underarm and the breast bone

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Your Cancer Care Team

People with cancer should be cared for by a multidisciplinary team . This is a team of specialists who work together to provide the best care and treatment.

The team often consists of specialist cancer surgeons, oncologists , radiologists, pathologists, radiographers and specialist nurses.

Other members may include physiotherapists, dietitians and occupational therapists. You may also have access to clinical psychology support.

When deciding what treatment is best for you, your doctors will consider:

• the type and size of the cancer
• what grade it is
• whether the cancer has spread to other parts of your body

What Is Localized Prostate Cancer

Prostate cancer is the abnormal growth of cells in the prostate gland. Localized prostate cancer has not spread outside the gland. Early prostate cancer usually doesn’t cause symptoms.

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men. Most men who get it are older than 65. If your father, brother, or son has had prostate cancer, your risk is higher than average.

Men of African descent have the highest rates of both prostate cancer and deaths from it.

About 21,000 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer in Canada every year.footnote 1 In the United States, about 12 out of 100 men in the U.S. will be diagnosed with prostate cancer sometime in their lifetime.footnote 2 But most men who are diagnosed with prostate cancer don’t die from prostate cancer.

Unlike many other cancers, prostate cancer is usually slow-growing. When prostate cancer is found earlybefore it has spread outside the glandit may be cured with radiation or surgery.

Prostate cancer that has grown beyond the prostate is called advanced prostate cancer. Treatment choices are different for that stage of cancer.

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Treating Advanced Prostate Cancer

If the cancer has reached an advanced stage, it’s no longer possible to cure it. But it may be possible to slow its progression, prolong your life and relieve symptoms.

Treatment options include:

• hormone treatment
• chemotherapy

If the cancer has spread to your bones, medicines called bisphosphonates may be used. Bisphosphonates help reduce bone pain and bone loss.

Stages Of Prostate Cancer

Doctors combine the T, N, and M results with the Gleason score and PSA level in a process called stage grouping. The system uses Roman numerals from I to IV . The stage helps your doctor choose the best course of treatment for you.

Stage I

• The cancer is growing in your prostate but hasnât spread beyond it.
• In most cases, the doctor canât feel the tumor during a DRE or see it in imaging tests.
• The Gleason score is 6 or less, and the PSA level is less than 10.
• The tumor is in half or less of one side of the prostate.

Stage IIA

• The cancer is growing in your prostate but hasnât spread beyond it.
• The doctor may or may not be able to feel the tumor during a DRE or see it on an imaging test.
• The tumor can touch more than half of one lobe of the prostate but doesnât involve both lobes.
• The Gleason score is 7 or less, and the PSA level is less than 20.

Stage IIB

• The cancer is growing in your prostate but hasnât spread beyond it.
• The doctor may or may not be able to feel the tumor during a DRE or see it on an imaging test.
• The tumor can be in one or both lobes of the prostate.
• The Gleason score is 7, and the PSA level is less than 20.

Stage IIC

• The cancer hasn’t spread beyond the prostate.
• The doctor may or may not be able to feel the tumor during a DRE or see it on an imaging test.
• The tumor can be in one or both lobes of the prostate.
• The Gleason score is 7 or 8, and the PSA level is less than 20.
• The cancer cells appear more abnormal than in stage IIB.

Stage IIIA

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How Is Prostate Cancer Staged

Prostate cancer is one of the most common types of cancer that develops in men and is the second leading cause of cancer deaths in American men, behind lung cancer and just ahead of colorectal cancer. The prognosis for prostate cancer, as with any cancer, depends on how advanced the cancer has become, according to established stage designations.

The prostate gland is a walnut-sized gland present only in men, found in the pelvis below the bladder. The prostate gland wraps around the urethra and lies in front of the rectum. The prostate gland secretes part of the liquid portion of the semen, or seminal fluid, which carries sperm made by the testes. The fluid is essential to reproduction.

The term to stage a cancer means to describe the evident extent of the cancer in the body at the time that the cancer is first diagnosed.

• Clinical staging of prostate cancer is based on the pathology results, physical examination, PSA, and if appropriate, radiologic studies.
• The stage of a cancer helps doctors understand the extent of the cancer and plan cancer treatment.
• Knowing the overall results of the different treatments of similarly staged prostate cancers can help the doctor and patient make important decisions about choices of treatment to recommend or to accept.

Cancer Staging May Miss Errant Cells

Once a pathologist confirms that cancer is present, the doctor will next determine how far the cancer extends a process known as cancer staging and discuss the implications with you. This is perhaps the most important information of all for you to obtain, as it determines whether the cancer is likely to be curable, or whether it has already spread to additional tissues, making prognosis much worse.

If you were my patient, I would ask you to consider two important points. First, cancer staging actually occurs in two phases: clinical and pathological . Of the two, pathological staging is more accurate.

A second point to understand, however, is that even pathological staging can be inaccurate . A cancer spreads, or metastasizes, once a primary tumor sheds cancer cells that travel elsewhere in the body and establish other tumor sites. Metastasis is a complex process that researchers do not fully understand. What is clear is that this process involves multiple genetic mutations and steps, and that each type of cancer spreads in a unique way.

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The Number Staging System

There are a few different systems used for staging prostate cancer. A simplified number staging system is described below.

• Stage 1 The tumour is contained in the prostate. The tumour is too small to be felt when a doctor does a rectal examination;or to be seen on a scan.

• Stage 2 The tumour is still contained in the prostate, but your doctor can feel it when they do a rectal examination.

• Stage 3 The tumour has started to break through the outer capsule of the prostate and may be in the nearby tubes that produce semen .

• Stage 4 The tumour has spread outside the prostate. It may have spread to areas such as the bladder or back passage . Or it may have spread further, for example to the bones.

Using the numbered staging system described above:

• stage 4 is known as advanced prostate cancer.

See also

The grade of a cancer gives an idea of how quickly the cancer might grow or spread. A doctor decides the grade of the cancer by how the cancer cells look under the microscope.

Doctors look at the grade of the cancer to help them plan your treatment.

Gleason is the most commonly used grading system for prostate cancer.

The Most Common Symptoms Of Stage 3 Mesothelioma Include:

• Shortness of breath
• Fluid buildup
• Weight loss

As the tumors continue to grow and spread throughout the chest, symptoms will become more problematic. Stage 3;symptoms vary;from patient to patient depending on where the cancer is spreading and if the tumor mass damages vital organs. Some patients may experience referred pain felt in the neck, back or shoulders.

A tumor invading the chest wall may cause increased chest pain, while tumors forming around the lung may lead to increased breathing difficulties. Pleural mesothelioma tumors also cause increased pleural fluid, which puts pressure on the lungs. Symptoms and characteristics of stage 3 mesothelioma vary based primarily on cancer type.

Connect with a Top Mesothelioma Specialist

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The Grade Group And Psa Level Are Used To Stage Prostate Cancer

The stage of the cancer is based on the results of the staging and diagnostic tests, including the prostate-specific antigen test and the Grade Group. The tissue samples removed during the biopsy are used to find out the Gleason score. The Gleason score ranges from 2 to 10 and describes how different the cancer cells look from normal cells under a microscope and how likely it is that the tumor will spread. The lower the number, the more cancer cells look like normal cells and are likely to grow and spread slowly.

The Grade Group depends on the Gleason score. See the General Information section for more information about the Gleason score.

• Grade Group 1 is a Gleason score of 6 or less.
• Grade Group 2 or 3 is a Gleason score of 7.
• Grade Group 4 is a Gleason score 8.
• Grade Group 5 is a Gleason score of 9 or 10.

The PSA test measures the level of PSA in the blood. PSA is a substance made by the prostate that may be found in an increased amount in the blood of men who have prostate cancer.