What is prostate cancer?
It is the most common cancer in men. Most cases develop in men over the age of 65. You might have small cancer cells in the prostate but they never grow or grow very slow to a degree will not effect on your life expectancy
What causes prostate cancer?
The exact reason why a cell becomes cancerous is unclear. Damages or alteration of certain genes in the cell lead to uncontrollable growth.
Risk factors:
See PSA
What are the symptoms of prostate cancer?
· No symptoms or
· Hesitancy. You take longer time to initiate urination
· Poor urine stream
· Urgency. You have to pee quickly.
· Dribbling. A few drops might stain your
· Poor emptying. You feel you still have urine in your bladder.
· Frequency.
· Rarely blood in urine
· Bone pain if the cancer is advanced
Having the above symptoms don’t mean you have prostate cancer but it is better to get checked if you have anyone of them
How is prostate cancer diagnosed?
See prostate cancer screening
You may need a biopsy; small sample is taken from your prostate to be examined under microscope to confirm the cancer
What are the treatment options for prostate cancer?
The treatment is different, the options which may be considered include: surgery, radiotherapy, hormone treatment and, less commonly, chemotherapy. Often a combination of two or more of these treatments is used. The treatments used depend on:
1. The cancer size, has spread or not and PSA level.
2. Age, general health.
Treatment options depend on the status of the cancer whether it is confined to the prostate or spread out side the gland. Your doctor will discuss with the right option. Remember you can choose to wait without treatment
What is the outlook?
Again it depends on the stage of the prostate. Early prostate cancer is slow growing in most of the cases especially if diagnosed early .Some of them has already spread.
The outlook is different based on that however most prostate cancer patient die of a reason other than the cancer itself.
Screening for prostate cancer
See PSA
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