Where Are Men!

 

Let’s get this right: Prostate cancer is curable. Early detection is the best way to control the disease.

 

Who is at Risk?

Men with a family member who has prostate cancer should be screened at age 40 unless the family member was diagnosed at an age younger than 49. A doctor can help these men determine when to get their initial screening. African American men suffer disproportionately from the disease, having a 50% higher incidence and a 2-fold greater mortality than do Caucasian men. The reason behind this disparity is still unclear.

 

Background

The prostate gland is part of the male reproductive system. Prostate cancer is a tumor that grows in the prostate gland. Cancer causes cells in the body to change and grow out of control. No specific cause of prostate cancer is known. In some cases, the defects can be inherited while others can be acquired through a man’s lifetime. In general, it is typically a very slow growing tumor, often causing no symptoms until advanced stages, which is usually after about 10 years of development .

 

Incidence

Prostate cancer is common among men older than 65. By age 50, up to 1 in 4 men may have some cancerous cells in the prostate gland. Most cases are treatable because they are found with screening tests before the cancer has spread to other parts of the body. Prostate cancer is a type of cancer that is feared by men across the world.

Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer deaths in American men, men in England and Wales (Office for National Statistics, 1996). Its incidence is increasing worldwide with the exception of skin cancer. In fact, of all cancer types, prostate cancer is most closely linked to genetic risk factors. Most elderly men have some abnormal prostate cells.

As men age, the prostate may get bigger and block the urethra or bladder. Although prostate cancer is common in the elderly population, more men will die with the disease than from the disease and in most cases, without even realizing that they had the disease.

 

Diagnosis

Medical experts who do not recommend regular screening want convincing evidence that finding early-stage prostate cancer, and treating it, saves lives. They believe some of these cancers may never affect a man's health, and treating them could cause temporary or long-lasting side effects like impotence (inability to keep an erection) and incontinence (inability to control the urine flow, resulting in leakage or dribbling).

Prostate cancer is diagnosed through the combination of a digital rectal examination and a blood test to measure prostate specific antigen (PSA). PSA is an enzyme produced in large quantities by the prostate secretory glands. Prostate cancer is often first detected as a hard nodule during a routine rectal examination. Prostate cancer is one condition that can cause large amounts of PSA to leech into the bloodstream, where a raised PSA blood level may indicate the possibility of prostate cancer diagnosis.

The drawbacks to the PSA screenings are fairly well understood: Although the test can determine whether a man has prostate cancer or not, it cannot provide any information on how aggressive or serious the cancer is. If the cancer has spread, a man may complain of a bladder outlet obstruction or bone pain from spread of the cancer to the bones.

 

Treatment

Prostate cancer is not sensitive to current chemotherapy regimes. Prostate cancer is a disease where early detection and prompt treatment are important to improve survival.

Symptoms and signs, therefore, are more often associated with advanced prostate cancer. Symptoms will sometimes diminish without any medical intervention. Other treatments include heat therapy to destroy excess tissue, or surgery to remove enough tissue to relieve the blockage that affects urination.

Prostate cancer is hormone sensitive or hormone dependent , meaning that prostate cancer growth depends on androgens, particularly testosterone. The goal of hormone therapy is to dramatically reduce testosterone levels in the blood, thus slowing the rate of prostate cancer cell growth.

Medications can have side effects, including hot flashes and loss of sexual desire

Some of the recommendations include reducing the amount of animal fat in your diet and eating more of certain fruits and vegetables to improve your overall health and possibly help lower your risk of prostate cancer developing or spreading.

Brachytherapy can also be used to treat this cancer. It is a form of radiotherapy where a radioactive source in placed inside or next to the tissue that requires treatment. One of the concerns is what is the potential effect of the radiation on friends, family and various people that you would come into contact with while on radioactive treatment, especially if your spouse is pregnant?

The information from the brachytherapy unit says that one should stay at least 1.5 meters from pregnant women except for very short periods of time and also that one should not hold babies or young children in one's lap. The next question is what is meant by a very short period of time and how strictly one should adhere to the guidelines. Does wearing a lead apron mean that you could get closer for longer periods of time? Sleeping in a different bed for 90 days was a must.

There is a lot of "medical" information on the web but not a lot of practical information about how to prepare oneself or how to cope with life once the medical procedure had been done. Medical information changes rapidly on the web. Information about herbal therapies and other dietary supplements, is not regulated or evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration and therefore the information should not be used to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease without the supervision of a medical doctor.