Prostate Cancer - How Prostate Cancer Grows And Why - Find Out

Prostate Cancer Information

Prostate Cancer is growing fast among the older men above 50 and as you grow older, your risk of having prostate cancer increases. Death is not definite in all the cases but the trouble it causes is nothing less than a slow death.

But if it gets diagnosed in its initial stage then it becomes easy to cure prostate cancer. And for that, you should know that how it grows.

Now what happens, the male hormones especially testosterone, stimulates the growth of cancer cells in the prostate. This testosterone is produced by the testes (nearly 95%) and the rest 5% is produced by the adrenal glands (small glands above each kidney).

Prostate Cancer is slow-growing

Prostate Cancer grows at a quite low pace. A man suffering from Prostate Cancer may lead a normal life for several years without ever having cancer discovered. As mentioned above, that this cancer grows with the growing age of an old man. In most of the cases, men with prostate cancer get diagnosed after they cross 65.

Painful Urinating - a prostate cancer symptom

This cancer can cause a lot of damage to your body. As the prostate cancer grows, it starts squeezing the urethra which results into painful urinating. This pain is considered to be the first alarming sign of prostate cancer. But its not right to relate this symptom always to prostate cancer, it can also occur due to some other infections. Sometimes, prostate cancer without showing any symptoms starts attacking the cells close to the prostate. And this is really dangerous.

Bone Pain - another prostate cancer symptom
A stage comes when the cells break off from the cancer and spread reaching the the lymph nodes, various bones (especially the hip-bone and the lower back), lungs and sometimes it reaches your brain. And then these cells form tumors in other parts of the body and start expanding. These expanded tumors start squeezing those body parts resulting in the advanced stage of prostate cancer. And when these cells reach your bones, it causes bone pain in your body.

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Prostate Cancer Treatments - What You Need To Know - Nurse's Prostate Cancer Report

Many men, especially those later in life have made the decision with their doctors to simply watch and wait. Early prostate cancer is confined to the prostate gland itself; most of the patients with this type of cancer can live for years without any problems.
Cancer that grows in the prostate gland is called prostate cancer. About one man in six will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during his lifetime, but only one man in 34 will die of the disease. Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer deaths among men in the U.S. At an advanced age, the risks of surgery for prostate cancer or other more radical treatments may actually be worse than the disease.

One symptom is a need to urinate frequently, especially at night. Weak or interrupted flow of urine and painful or burning urination can be symptoms to watch out for. There may be other symptoms not mentioned here.

One prostate cancer symptom is difficulty starting urination or holding back urine. Having one or more cancer symptoms does not necessarily mean that you have prostate cancer. Most prostate cancer symptoms, although associated with prostate cancer, are more likely to be connected to non-cancerous conditions.

One downside to PSA testing is that health care providers are detecting and treating some very early-stage prostate cancers that may never have caused the patient any harm. The prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test measures the PSA enzyme in your blood for abnormalities. The decision about whether to pursue a PSA test should be based on a discussion between you and your doctor.

There are several potential downsides to PSA testing; for example a high PSA does not always mean a patient has prostate cancer. What is called a free PSA may help tell the difference between BPH (benign prostatic hypertrophy), an enlargement of the prostate gland, and prostate cancer. A bone scan can indicate whether the cancer has spread or not.

Surgery, called a radical prostatectomy, removes the entire prostate gland and some of the surrounding tissues. Since prostate tumors require testosterone to grow, reducing the testosterone level is used to prevent further growth and spread of the cancer. What you can do now is begin to understand what exactly your treatment options are and where you're going to begin.

In the early stages, surgery and radiation may be used to remove or attempt to kill the cancer cells or shrink the tumor. Medications can have many side effects, including hot flashes and loss of sexual desire. Urinary incontinence can be a possible complication of surgery.

In patients whose health makes the risk of surgery unacceptably high, radiation therapy is often the chosen conventional alternative. Radiation therapy to the prostate gland is either external or internal, both of which use high-energy rays to kill cancer cells and shrink tumors. Whether radiation is as good as prostate removal is debatable and the decision about which to choose, if any, can be difficult.

Some drugs with numerous side effects are being used to treat advanced prostate cancer, blocking the production of testosterone, called chemical castration; it has the same result as surgical removal of the testes. Surgery, radiation, hormonal therapy and chemotherapy all have significant side effects; know fully what they are before you proceed.

Many men simply want the best treatment they can get but what's important is picking the best treatment for you.

Other medications used for hormonal therapy, with side effects, include androgen-blocking agents, which prevent testosterone from attaching to prostate cells. Thoroughly discuss your treatment options and concerns with your doctor and other health professionals; it never hurts to get a second or even third opinion or more if necessary.

With the advent of PSA testing, most prostate cancers are now found before they cause any symptoms. If you haven't been diagnosed but are concerned about symptoms you should call for an appointment to see your doctor; and if you're a man older than 50 who has never been screened for prostate cancer (by rectal exam and/or PSA level determination) or not had a regular annual exam, or have had a family history of prostate cancer, make an appointment soon.

The outcome of prostate cancer varies greatly; mostly because the disease is found in older men who may have a variety of other complicating diseases or conditions, such as cardiac or respiratory disease, or disabilities that immobilize or greatly decrease their activities.

For more information on prostate cancer treatments and prostate cancer symptoms go to http://www.BestProstateHealthTips.com Helen Hecker R.N.'s website specializing in prostate and prostate cancer tips, advice and resources, including information on prostate tests and natural prostate cancer treatments

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Prostate Cancer Treatment - What Kind of Drugs Are Used To Treat Prostate Cancer

Doctors will try different medications before referring you to a medical oncologist. If you are referred to one that would imply that your prostate cancer has reached an advanced stage. They would then be speaking about Chemotherapy.

Chemotherapy will destroy the cancer cells by interfering with their growth and reproduction. Chemotherapy can be performed either by administering drugs or by performing surgical operations. In some cases, it could be a combination of these two. Chemotherapy can in some cases be very effective the prostate cancer but will not cure it.

The known side-effects are chemotherapy are nausea, hair losses and mouth sores. A new technique called fractionated dose will diminish those side-effects.

Two common chemotherapy drugs are Mitoxantrone as well as Corticosteroids. The other drugs that are used for chemotherapy are rednisone, Paclitaxel and Docetaxel. The final brand which is becoming more and more popular is Estramustine.

Doctors will usually advice you to undergo a surgical operation. You will then be given some medications to take. Many studies have shown that this combination reduces the pains experienced by men to a great extent especially if the prostate cancer has spread to the bones. As explained before, the cancer will not totally disappear nor will you live longer.

Let us examine some other medications that are used and how they function:

Doxorubicin is an anti-tumor antibiotic which works by damaging the nuclei of cells.

Paclitaxel is a member of the Taxane group which functions by fastening the microtubules of cells and thus causing the cells to crumble during division.

Etoposide functions by slowing down the process of mitosis in cancerous cells.

Vinblastine is an antineoplastic which breaks apart cell division and is derived from the Madagascar periwinkle.

The use of chemotherapy in prostate cancer is still being studied and men who do have recourse to chemotherapy are strongly encouraged to discuss with their doctors about experimental trials.

Your oncologist will inform you of the benefits and drawbacks to of the different drugs described above. So do seek medical advice too and you would be in a better position to decide according to your own health and your personal values.

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