Is Bladder Cancer And Prostate Cancer The Same

What Is The Prostate

The prostate is a part of the male reproductive system, which includes the penis, prostate, seminal vesicles, and testicles. The prostate is located just below the bladder and in front of the rectum. It is about the size of a walnut and surrounds the urethra . It produces fluid that makes up a part of semen.

As a man ages, the prostate tends to increase in size. This can cause the urethra to narrow and decrease urine flow. This is called benign prostatic hyperplasia, and it is not the same as prostate cancer. Men may also have other prostate changes that are not cancer.external icon

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Overall Effectiveness Of This Test For Finding Parasites

To summarize and simplify, here is what this parasite test can find:

• can sometimes find parasitic worms
• can rarely find intestinal flukes
• can not detect microscopic parasites

So based on the above facts, this is an unreliable parasite test that I would not recommend.

That being said, often times people get a colonoscopy to diagnose irritable bowel disease, so the discovery of parasites in the colon is incidental.

Genetic Testing For Prostate Cancer

You may hear a lot about genetics or genomics. Both terms are related to genes and cell DNA, but they are different. These tests are being used to learn more about the DNA of cancer cells, and link DNA mutations with treatments. In the future, genetic testing may be the first step doctors take when diagnosing prostate cancer.

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Risk Factors For Bph And Prostate Cancer

The word âbenignâ in benign prostatic hyperplasia means itâs not cancer. âHyperplasiaâ means an increased number of cells. BPH is also known as an enlarged prostate.

Itâs not clear what causes an enlarged prostate, but age appears to play a role. The main male hormone is testosterone, and your testosterone level naturally goes down with age.

Along with testosterone, you produce smaller amounts of a hormone called dihydrotestosterone and the female hormone estrogen. Some researchers theorize that as your testosterone drops, it leaves you with higher proportions of estrogen and DHT. This could prompt prostate cells to spread.

The main risk factors for BPH are being male and being older. Itâs rare if youâre under 40. Half of all men between ages 51 and 60 have BPH. It may affect as many as 90% of men older than 80.

Other risk factors for BPH include:

• Family history: Having blood relatives with BPH boosts your risk
• Overall health: Conditions such as diabetes or heart disease increase your odds
• Obesityand lifestyle: Obesity may raise your risk, while exercise can lower it

Cancer starts when cells develop changes in their DNA, causing abnormal cells to grow out of control. Exactly what sets this off in prostate cells isnât clear.

As with BPH, the biggest risk factors for prostate cancer are being male and aging. Those 50 and up are at highest risk. About 13 of every 100 men will get prostate cancer during their lifetimes.

Other risk factors are:

Summary Ofevidence And Guidelines For Metastatic Disease

GC = gemcitabine plus cisplatin FGFR =fibroblast growth factor receptor HD-MVAC = high-dose intensity

methotrexate, vinblastine, adriamycin plus cisplatin.

Figure 7.2: Flow chart for the management of metastatic urothelialcancer*

*Treatment within clinical trials is highly encouraged.

BSC = best supportive care CR = complete response DD-MVAC = dose dense methotrexate vinblastine doxorubicin cisplatin EV = enfortumabvedotin FDA = US Food and Drug Administration FGFR = pan-fibroblast growth factorreceptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor GFR = glomerular filtration rate IO =immunotherapy PR = partial response PS = performance status SD = stable disease.

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Treatment Of Metastatic Or Recurrent Urethral Cancer

For information about the treatments listed below, see the Treatment Option Overview section.

Treatment of urethral cancer that has metastasized is usually chemotherapy.

Treatment of recurrent urethral cancer may include one or more of the following:

• Radiation therapy.

Use our clinical trial search to find NCI-supported cancer clinical trials that are accepting patients. You can search for trials based on the type of cancer, the age of the patient, and where the trials are being done. General information about clinical trials is also available.

Treatments To Control Advanced Prostate Cancer

If youve just been diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer, you may be offered the following treatments:

• chemotherapy with hormone therapy
• clinical trials.

Chemotherapy with hormone therapy

Chemotherapy uses anti-cancer drugs to kill cancer cells, wherever they are in the body. It wont get rid of your prostate cancer, but it aims to shrink it and slow down its growth. You might be offered chemotherapy at the same time as, or soon after, you start having hormone therapy. This helps many men to live longer, and may help delay symptoms such as pain.

You need to be quite fit to have chemotherapy. This is because it can cause side effects that are harder to deal with if you have other health problems. Read more about chemotherapy.

Hormone therapy

Hormone therapy will be a life-long treatment for most men with advanced prostate cancer.

Prostate cancer usually needs the hormone testosterone to grow. Hormone therapy works by either stopping your body from making testosterone, or stopping testosterone from reaching the cancer cells. This usually causes the cancer to shrink, wherever it is in the body. Hormone therapy can also help control symptoms of advanced prostate cancer, such as bone pain.

Hormone therapy can cause side effects speak to your doctor or nurse about ways to manage these. Read more about hormone therapy, and its side effects.

Clinical trials

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Bladder And Bowel Incontinence

Incontinence is a loss of control of a persons bowels or bladder which can cause accidental leakage of body fluids and waste. Incontinence can be more than a physical problem. It can disrupt your quality of life if its not managed well.

Fear, anxiety, and anger are common feelings for people dealing with incontinence. You may avoid being intimate or having sex because you are afraid of urine, gas, or stool leakage. Fear of having an accident may keep you from being physically active, enjoying hobbies, or spending extended time outside your home.

Both men and women can have incontinence during and after surgery or some other treatments for cancer. Incontinence can also occur because of other non-cancer medical conditions. Be sure to talk to your health care team if you have difficulty controlling urination or bowels. Talking about incontinence can be embarrassing, but being open and honest with your health care team can help manage it.

Prostatitis Vs Prostate Cancer Symptoms And Signs

• Prostatitis is inflammation of the prostate gland the four types are acute bacterial prostatitis, chronic bacterial prostatitis, chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome, and asymptomatic inflammatory prostatitis.
• Prostate cancer develops when abnormal prostate gland cells multiply without control and may metastasize to other organs.
• Benign prostatic hyperplasia is a noncancerous condition where normal prostate gland cells keep multiplying, thereby increasing the size of the prostate.
• Prostatitis usually does not lead to death, but prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in men, even though it is a slow-moving disease.
• Most men with early prostate cancer have no symptoms or signs symptoms and signs appear when the cancer becomes large enough to cause urinary blockage. Prostatitis, in contrast, usually appears with symptoms such as urinary frequency, urgency and/or pain with urination and possibly, some type of sexual dysfunction.
• Prostate cancer, when it produces signs and symptoms, may produce one or more of the following symptoms or signs that may also be seen in patients with prostatitis or BPH:
• Painful ejaculation

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The Initial Causes Is Prostate Cancer The Same As Bladder Cancer

One of the first symptoms of prostate issues is pain or tenderness in the groin or lower back. This can be the result of a noncancerous condition called enlarged prostatic tissue, or it could be an infection of the bladder. In either case, its important to see a doctor as soon as possible. If youre suffering from prostate pain, you may want to consider reducing your caffeine intake.

Another symptom of a potentially enlarged prostate is difficulty starting a stream of urine, leaking, or dribbling. These symptoms are not serious, but theyre still alarming. Most men put up with an enlarged prostate for years before seeking medical attention, but they typically seek treatment as soon as they notice symptoms. Even if you dont have symptoms, its worth getting checked to determine if you have any prostate issues.

If you experience nightly bathroom runs, you may be experiencing an enlarged prostate. You may be having difficulty starting a stream of urine, or you may even be dribbling or leaking during the day. These problems arent life-threatening, but can become a nuisance. You should not ignore these signs and seek treatment as soon as you notice them. If you feel any of these symptoms, you should consult a doctor.

Benefits And Harms Of Screening

The benefit of screening is that the disease is often curable with early detection . Common treatments like surgery or radiation aim to remove or kill all cancerous cells in the prostate. If the cancer spreads beyond the prostate before it is treated, it is often fatal. However, the cancer usually grows so slowly that it is often equally safe to wait until there are symptoms before attempting to diagnose prostate cancer. Symptoms of prostate cancer might include urinary problems, difficulty having an erection, or blood in the urine or semen.

The harms of screening include 1) inaccurate results leading to unnecessary biopsies and complications, and 2) complications from unnecessary treatment. Even if a man has prostate cancer, if he does not have symptoms he may not need to be treated. Experts estimate that between 18% and 85% of prostate cancers detected by these screening tests would never become advanced enough to harm the patient. This wide range of uncertainty, however just adds to the confusion.

Unnecessary treatment costs a lot of money, but the main concern is the complications, which include serious and long-lasting problems, such as urinary incontinence and impotence.15

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Side Effects Of Prostate Surgery

The major possible side effects of radical prostatectomy are urinary incontinence and erectile dysfunction . These side effects can also occur with other forms of prostate cancer treatment.

Urinary incontinence: You may not be able to control your urine or you may have leakage or dribbling. Being incontinent can affect you not only physically but emotionally and socially as well. These are the major types of incontinence:

• Men with stress incontinence might leak urine when they cough, laugh, sneeze, or exercise. Stress incontinence is the most common type after prostate surgery. Itâs usually caused by problems with the valve that keeps urine in the bladder . Prostate cancer treatments can damage this valve or the nerves that keep the valve working.
• Men with overflow incontinence have trouble emptying their bladder. They take a long time to urinate and have a dribbling stream with little force. Overflow incontinence is usually caused by blockage or narrowing of the bladder outlet by scar tissue.
• Men with urge incontinencehave a sudden need to urinate. This happens when the bladder becomes too sensitive to stretching as it fills with urine.
• Rarely after surgery, men lose all ability to control their urine. This is called continuous incontinence.

After surgery for prostate cancer, normal bladder control usually returns within several weeks or months. This recovery usually occurs slowly over time.

There are several options for treating erectile dysfunction:

What Causes Bladder Cancer And Am I At Risk

Each year, about 83,730 new cases of bladder cancer will be diagnosed in the United States. It affects more men than women and the average age at diagnosis is 73.

Cigarette smoking is the biggest risk factor for bladder cancer. About half of all bladder cancers are caused by cigarette smoking. Other risk factors for developing bladder cancer include: family history, occupational exposure to chemicals , previous cancer treatment with cyclophosphamide, ifosfamide, or pelvic radiation, the medication pioglitazone, exposure to arsenic , aristolochic , bladder infections caused by schistosoma haematobium, not drinking enough fluids, a genetic condition called Lynch Syndrome, a mutation of the retinoblastoma gene or the PTEN gene. and neurogenic bladder and the overuse of indwelling catheters.

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About Dr Dan Sperling

Dan Sperling, MD, DABR, is a board certified radiologist who is globally recognized as a leader in multiparametric MRI for the detection and diagnosis of a range of disease conditions. As Medical Director of the Sperling Prostate Center, Sperling Medical Group and Sperling Neurosurgery Associates, he and his team are on the leading edge of significant change in medical practice. He is the co-author of the new patient book Redefining Prostate Cancer, and is a contributing author on over 25 published studies. For more information, contact the Sperling Prostate Center.

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What Are The Symptoms Of Bph And Prostate Cancer

BPH and prostate cancer have similar symptoms, so its sometimes hard to tell the two conditions apart. As the prostate grows for any reason, it squeezes the urethra. This pressure prevents urine from getting down your urethra and out of your body. Prostate cancer symptoms often dont start until the cancer has grown large enough to put pressure on the urethra.

Symptoms of both BPH and prostate cancer include:

• an urgent need to urinate
• feeling the urge to urinate many times during the day and night
• trouble starting to urinate or having to push to release urine
• weak or dribbling urine stream
• urine flow that stops and starts
• feeling like your bladder is never fully empty

If you have prostate cancer, you might also notice these symptoms:

• painful or burning urination

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Symptoms Of Bladder Cancer

Common symptoms of bladder cancer, on the other hand, are slightly more complex.

The most common symptom of bladder cancer is a change in the color of your urine. Your urine may become orange, pink, rusty brown, dark red, or bright red in color, which would indicate theres blood in your urine.

Blood in the urine is also a common symptom of a bladder infection, so it is one that is often misdiagnosed in women presenting with bladder cancer.

Other symptoms common in cases of bladder cancer include:

• The need to urinate more frequently, even when your bladder isnt full
• Painincluding burning, or general discomfortwhen you urinate
• Pain in the lower back, mid-back, or side
• Urinating when youre not meaning to
• Trouble getting the urine stream started
• Feeling like something is blocking the flow of urine

The Top 7 Signs Of Advanced Prostate Cancer

In the early stages, you may not notice any symptoms related to prostate cancer. This is why screenings are important. Symptoms can sometimes be noticed for the first time when the cancer advances.

Advanced prostate cancer, also called metastatic cancer, means the cancer has spread to other areas of your body beyond your prostate gland. The most common areas for prostate cancer to spread are your bladder, rectum, and bones. It can also spread to your lymph nodes, liver, lungs, and other body tissues.

Whether youve just been diagnosed or youre in treatment, its also important to know the signs of advanced cancer. Cancer can behave differently depending on your genetics, so not every person will experience the same symptoms in the same way.

Read on to learn more about the seven top symptoms of advanced prostate cancer and how to spot them.

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Second Cancers After Prostate Cancer

Prostate cancer survivors can be affected by a number of health problems, but often a major concern is facing cancer again. Cancer that comes back after treatment is called a recurrence. But some cancer survivors may develop a new, unrelated cancer later. This is called a second cancer.

Unfortunately, being treated for prostate cancer doesnt mean you cant get another cancer. Men who have had prostate cancer can still get the same types of cancers that other men get. In fact, they might be at higher risk for certain types of cancer.

Men who have had prostate cancer can get any type of second cancer, but they have an increased risk of certain cancers, including:

• Acute myeloid leukemia

This risk is probably related to the dose of radiation. Newer methods of giving radiation therapy may have different effects on the risks of a second cancer. Because these methods are newer, the long-term effects have not been studied as well.