When Is Prostate Cancer Most Common

Whos At Risk For Prostate Cancer

All men are at risk of having prostate cancer. About one man in nine will be diagnosed with it during their lifetime, but only one in 39 will die of this disease. About 80% of men who reach age 80 have cancer cells in their prostate. Besides being male, there are other things that contribute to the risk.

What Are Other Symptoms Of Prostate Cancer

In men who have prostate cancer that is more advanced or that has spread to areas of the body beyond the prostate gland, the following symptoms may occur:

• Fatigue
• Weight loss that is unexplained
• Changes in bowel movements
• Swelling within the feet or legs or within the pelvic area
• Pain within the hips, back, shoulders, thighs, or other bones that does not go away or that results in fractures
• Pain or numbness in the feet, legs, or hips

Because these are signs that cancer may have reached more advanced stages, it is imperative that you discuss these symptoms with your doctor as soon as possible. Prompt tests and the right diagnosis will allow you to receive treatment to begin getting rid of cancer.

Genetic Factors For Prostate Cancer

We dont know for sure how prostate cancer starts. But there are a variety of genetic components that were learning about more and more every year, says Dr. Perlmutter. We now know theres a very large association between the BRCA genes and prostate cancer. Weve known that in regards to breast cancer for a long time, but we now more fully appreciate and understand its link with prostate cancer.

Everyone has two copies of these BRCA genes: BRCA1 and BRCA2. But you have an increased risk of developing some cancerssuch as prostateif you have a mutation in these genes.

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Can Prostate Cancer Be Prevented

There are no clear prevention strategies for prostate cancer. There is some conflicting evidence that a healthy diet composed of low fat, high vegetables and fruits may help reduce your risk of prostate cancer. Routine screening, with PSA blood test and physical exam, is important to detect prostate cancer at an early stage. A healthy diet and regular exercise are also critical in maintaining good health and preventing disease in general.

Prostate Cancer In Men

Prostate cancer begins when abnormal cells in the prostate start growing in an uncontrolled way. In most cases, prostate cancer grows more slowly than other types of cancer. This might mean that you do not need treatment straight away. However, some prostate cancers can grow and spread quickly, so it is important to investigate any symptoms or unusual tests promptly.

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Advancements In Diagnostic Procedures

For the last two-and-a-half decades, determining the level of prostate-specific antigen and trans-rectal ultrasound-guided prostate biopsy has been the standard diagnostic procedure.

However, the new advanced technology for diagnosing prostate cancer combines three techniques. These are Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Transperineal Biopsy, and Transrectal ultrasound.

The technology is known as Transperineal MRI-TRUS Fusion Biopsy. Simultaneous implementation of these technologies offers a plethora of advantages.

The benefits of these techniques include less risk of infection, high specificity and sensitivity, 95-97% accuracy, and avoiding unnecessary biopsies.

This diagnostic technique will be helpful for those who are suspected of having prostate cancer. It is also effective for diagnosing prostate cancer in diabetic and elderly patients and patients with anal and rectal diseases.

Low-grade early prostate cancer patients considered for active surveillance may also undergo this advanced procedure.

By The writer is consultant urologist & transplant Surgeon, Columbia Asia Hospitals Whitefield, Columbia Asia Referral Hospitals Yeshwanthpur, Columbia Asia Hospitals, Hebbal

What Are The Symptoms Of Prostate Cancer

Early-stage prostate cancer rarely causes symptoms. These problems may occur as the disease progresses:

• Frequent, sometimes urgent, need to urinate, especially at night.
• Weak urine flow or flow that starts and stops.
• Painful urination .
• Painful ejaculation and erectile dysfunction .
• Blood in semen or urine.
• Lower back pain, hip pain and chest pain.
• Leg or feet numbness.

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What Puts You At Increased Risk

Other factors that may increase your risk of developing prostate cancer include:

Age. Your risk of prostate cancer increases as you age. Its most common after age 50, with about six in 10 cases found in men older than age 65.

Race. African-American men are ata greater risk of prostate cancer than men of other races. As well, it affects African-American men at a younger age and is often more aggressive.

Family history. If you have a blood relative with prostate cancer, your risk increases. There are also other cancers that may be genetically related, and you may have an increased risk if you have a family history of breast or pancreatic cancer.

Prevention And Early Detection

Prevention

Prostate cancer is an androgen-dependent tumor with a prolonged latency between initial malignant transformation and clinical expression, which are features well-suited to disease prevention efforts.7 Progression from tumor inception to invasive carcinoma often takes decades, allowing sufficient time for intervention.9 Chemoprevention strategies that use high-risk target populations, particularly those with premalignant lesions , have the greatest potential to identify promising agents in a time-efficient manner.98 The results of focused studies such as these can then be confirmed in large-scale trials applied to the general population. The ability to alter the hormonal environment of the host provides an excellent opportunity to interrupt the multistep process that results in clinical expression of the disease.7 Advances in our understanding of the process of carcinogenesis and the availability of promising new chemopreventive agents, including those producing reversible androgen deprivation, have the potential to favorably affect the morbidity and mortality of prostate cancer in the foreseeable future.

Early Detection

TABLE 51-2. Upper Normal Age-Specific Limits for Prostate-Specific Antigen in Men without Prostate Cancer

Jaspreet S. Sandhu, Peter N. Schlegel, in, 2004

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When Prostate Cancer Reappears

Prostate cancer may show up elsewhere in the body orafter treatmentreappear in the prostate or elsewhere. These cancers are:

Recurrent prostate cancer: This is a cancer that returns to the prostate after treatment. Its also called a local recurrence. Prostate cancer treatment is designed to kill cancerous cells, but it may leave some undetected cells behind.

Metastatic prostate cancer:

Reducing The Cancer Burden

Between 30 and 50% of cancers can currently be prevented by avoiding risk factors and implementing existing evidence-based prevention strategies. The cancer burden can also be reduced through early detection of cancer and appropriate treatment and care of patients who develop cancer. Many cancers have a high chance of cure if diagnosed early and treated appropriately.

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How Deadly Is Prostate Cancer

Heres one of prostate cancers key contradictions. Its common about 13 in every 100 American men, for example, will develop it during their life but its mostly not dangerous. That is, the cancerous cells will grow but wont leave the prostate and get into other organs. And yet, of the 13 Americans who contract prostate cancer, two or three will die from it.

Why?

Over the past decade, scientists have discovered large differences in risk in different men, based on how their cancer presents.

In 81 per cent of newly diagnosed cases in Australia, prostate cancer is contained in the prostate. When the cancer is localised, it is curable, says Heathcote. In locally advanced prostate cancer, the cancer has spread outside the prostate to nearby organs, such as the bladder and in metastatic prostate cancer, the cancer has spread to far-away parts of the body, such as the bones . In these cases, it is no longer curable, says Heathcote, but can be controlled for many years.

A study in the journal Nature found that men with cancer cells only in their prostate had a 10-year cancer-specific survival rate of close to 99 per cent if the disease was found and treated, where necessary, early. But where the cancer had spread across the body, typically to the lymph nodes and bone marrow, the men fared poorly: only one in three would survive beyond five years.

What Is The Prostate

The prostate is a small gland in the pelvis, found only in men.

About the size of a satsuma, it’s located between the penis and the bladder, and surrounds the urethra.

The main function of the prostate is to produce a thick white fluid that creates semen when mixed with the sperm produced by the testicles.

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What Are The Stages Of Prostate Cancer

Your healthcare provider uses the Gleason score and Grade Groups to stage prostate cancer based on its projected aggressiveness. To get this information, the pathologist:

• Assigns a grade to each type of cell in your sample. Cells are graded on a scale of three to five . Samples that test in the one to two range are considered normal tissue.
• Adds together the two most common grades to get your Gleason score .
• Uses the Gleason score to place you into a Grade Group ranging from one to five. A Gleason score of six puts you in Grade Group 1 . A score of nine or higher puts you in Grade Group five . Samples with a higher portion of more aggressive cells receive a higher Grade Group.

Testing For Prostate Cancer Metastasis

After your biopsy, additional tests or imaging may be performed to check for cancer spread, though these are not required in all men with newly diagnosed prostate cancer.

You may need additional tests if you have:

• High PSA levels
• Extensive prostate involvement on biopsy
• High Gleason scores

• Computed tomography scans of your abdomen and pelvis
• Bone scans
• Magnetic resonance imaging of your pelvis

Many centers, including SCCA, are testing other means of finding cancer spread using new types of positron emission tomography scans. Sometimes lymph nodes around the prostate may be checked for metastasis in order to design treatment appropriately.

At SCCA and University of Washington Medical Center, a long-term effort has identified cells in the bone marrow that originated from prostate cancer, even in the absence of other evidence of spread. With these and other studies being offered to men with advanced prostate cancer, we hope to find ways to identify men at the highest risk of relapse so this knowledge can inform our treatment recommendations.

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Am I At Risk Of Prostate Cancer

In the UK, about 1 in 8 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime. We don’t know exactly what causes prostate cancer but there are some things that may mean you are more likely to get it these are called risk factors.

There are three main risk factors for getting prostate cancer, which are things you can’t change. These are:

• getting older it mainly affects men aged 50 or over
• being black.

If you have any of these risk factors or if you have any symptoms, speak to your GP. They can talk to you about your risk, and about the tests that are used to diagnose prostate cancer. You can also get in touch with our Specialist Nurses, who can help you understand your risk of prostate cancer.

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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Ok What Is The Prostate Whats It For

The prostate is a gland in men, just below the bladder. It is small, the size of a walnut in a 25-year-old, weighing about 30 grams. It partially surrounds the urethra, the tube that carries urine from the bladder to the penis. Nerves, including those crucial for erection, run along the outside surface of the prostate to the penis which explains why damage to this small gland can have outsized effects on a mans sexual function.

The prostate plays a key role in fertility, producing enzymes and hormones that help sperm function normally, as well as producing much of the fluid that, combined with sperm from the testes, makes up semen.

Unlike other organs, the prostate is not static in size.A natural thing that happens to our prostates as they get older is they get bigger. Its not so much a disease I describe it as natural ageing of the prostate, says Professor Declan Murphy, director of genito-urinary oncology at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre.

You have to remember what the prostate does: its the organ of ejaculation. Its there for reproduction. I dont think mother nature really intended it to live to be 60, 70, 80 years old because its done its job by then. It loses its ability to have normal regulation.

An approximate illustration of the prostates change in size over a mans life. Credit:Monique Westermann

What Is The Psa Blood Test

Men over 50 should talk to their GP every year about the PSA blood test.

The PSA blood test measures Prostate Specific Antigen . A PSA blood test does not test for prostate cancer but can help the GP decide if there is a problem with your prostate or not.

PSA is a protein produced by normal cells in the prostate and also by prostate cancer cells. It is normal for all men to have a small amount of PSA in their blood. A raised PSA level does not necessarily mean that you have prostate cancer but may indicate that you have a problem with your prostate such as an enlarged prostate or inflammation of the prostate.

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These Include Your Blood Pressure Heart Rate And Metab

Being diagnosed with cancer can be a major turning point in people’s lives, and it makes sense to want to seek out the best treatment available. The american cancer society estimates that over 21,000 people in the united states will be diagnosed with ova. It may grow slowly and it’s typically treatable. Learn about surgery options here. The hormones that your thyroid gland produces help regulate several of your bodily functions. Prostate cancer is one of the most common types of cancer diagnosed in men. These include your blood pressure, heart rate and metab. But hearing the words can still be scary. As with any ranking of cancer hospitals, this list provides a few prestigious names but doesn’t. Being armed with information is vital to begin the fight. In fact, most people don’t even know what it does. The earlier the detection of prostate cancer, the better the patient’s chance of survival is. Of course, your specialist is the main person whose advice you should follow but it doesn’t do anyone harm.

Surgery is a common treatment used to try to cure most prostate cancers. The american cancer society estimates that over 21,000 people in the united states will be diagnosed with ova. Learn about surgery options here.

Prostate cancer is one of the most common types of cancer diagnosed in men. The american cancer society estimates that over 21,000 people in the united states will be diagnosed with ova. The pancreas is a bodily organ that few people think about.

What Are Signs Or Symptoms Of Prostate Cancer

The most common sign of a prostate problem is difficulty in passing urine. This does not mean you have prostate cancer. If your prostate starts to change and grow, it will cause the tube which carries urine to the bladder, the urethra, to narrow. As a result, you might experience:

• a weak flow
• intermittency a flow which stops and starts
• hesitancy having to wait before you start to go
• frequency having to pee more often than previously
• urgency finding it difficult to postpone having to pee
• nocturia having to get up at night to pee

If you have any of the above symptoms, you should visit your GP as you may have a problem with your prostate other than prostate cancer. A blood test or a physical exam may help to tell your doctor more.

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Why Does Prostate Cancer Happen

The causes of prostate cancer are largely unknown. But certain things can increase your risk of developing the condition.

The chances of developing prostate cancer increase as you get older. Most cases develop in men aged 50 or older.

For reasons not yet understood, prostate cancer is more common in men of African-Caribbean or African descent, and less common in Asian men.

Men whose father or brother were affected by prostate cancer are at slightly increased risk themselves.

Recent research also suggests that obesity increases the risk of prostate cancer.

Which Age Groups Have The Highest Incidence Of Prostate Cancer

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Prostate cancer incidence increases as men age as many as 60% of men over 65 years of age may be diagnosed with prostate cancer. Prostate cancer is most often diagnosed in men aged 65-74 years median age at diagnosis is 66 years.

However, men as young as 17 years are experiencing an increasing incidence of prostate cancer in much of the world, including the United States, according to data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results program and the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation Global Burden of Disease database. These younger patients frequently present with more advanced cancer and have worse survival than middle-aged and older men. Worldwide, the incidence of prostate cancer has increased in men ages 15 to 40 years at a steady rate averaging 2% per year since 1990. In the United States, this age group was more than 6 times more likely than older men to have distant disease at diagnosis.

References

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