Prostate Cancer Symptoms Early Advanced And Recurrent Signs
As referenced before, the prostate malignancy will, for the most part, give practically zero indications explicitly during the beginning period. The manifestations may change for every person. It is imperative to understand that a significant number of symptoms can also be present because of other underlying diseases. You can schedule a screening test, which is often through a rectal examination to look for the prospects of an abnormality if there is any.
What Do The Dre Results Mean
A digital rectal examination is a test used to see if you might have a prostate problem or prostate cancer.
Your prostate may feel:
- normal a normal size for your age with a smooth surface
- larger than expected for your age this could be a sign of an enlarged prostate
- hard or lumpy this could be a sign of prostate cancer.
The DRE is not a completely accurate test. Your doctor or nurse cant feel the whole prostate. And a man with prostate cancer might have a prostate that feels normal.
How Is Prostate Cancer Diagnosed
Prostate cancer is diagnosed with a biopsy of the prostate. A biopsy is usually done if symptoms or a screening raises concern. A prostate cancer screening is a test your doctor uses to look for the disease before you have symptoms. There are two screening tests available: a digital rectal exam and a prostate-specific antigen test. You and your doctor will decide if you need a screening. However, these tests can only tell your doctor whether or not your prostate is healthy. Abnormal test results dont always mean you have cancer. How often you should be screened depends on your age and your personal risk factors.
During a DRE, your doctor will insert his or her gloved, lubricated finger a few inches into your rectum to feel your prostate gland. A normal prostate feels firm. If there are hard spots on the prostate, your doctor may suggest additional testing to check for prostate cancer.
During a PSA test, you will get a blood test. A blood test involves inserting a small needle into a vein in your arm to take a sample of blood. The test measures the level of PSA in your blood. Men who have prostate cancer may have a higher level of PSA in their blood. However, a PSA level can also be high because of less serious causes, such as infection or an enlarged prostate.
If your screening test results are abnormal, your doctor may recommend additional other tests to check for cancer. Those tests may include:
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When To See A Doctor
Consult with your doctor if you experience any of the symptoms discussed on this page particularly if they have been going on for a while. You will need a thorough work-up to determine the underlying cause, which may or may not be prostate cancer.
Its important to understand that other diseases or disorders can share these same symptoms. Benign prostatic hyperplasia , also called enlargement of the prostate, and are quite common. Men with these benign conditions can experience symptoms more often and more severely than men with prostate cancer.
Erectile dysfunction is relatively common, especially as one ages, and can also have causes unrelated to prostate cancer, such as smoking or cardiovascular disease. Experiencing a lower amount of fluid during ejaculation can be related to something as simple as diet or dehydration.
Its important to keep track of your symptoms, determining whats normal or abnormal for your own body. If you are worried about a particular symptom, or if its interfering with a relationship, you should discuss your concerns with your primary care physician.
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What Can Prostate Cancer Feel Like
Fatigue: This can be both because of the treatment or the presence of cancer itself. The process has a mental and an emotional toll as well, so it is important to keep a check on your therapy, diet, physical activity and sleeping routine.
Pain: You may feel severe or no pain depending on the location of the tumor. A stinging pain is characteristic specifically to when the cancer is spread in the bones. This may weaken them, making them vulnerable to fractures or soreness. So, if you are wondering if prostate cancer hurts, the answer is yes. However, the degree of severity can vary. The sensations can be burning, stabbing, tingling, or numbing.
Issues in Bowel Movement: This includes constipation, diarrhea, the urgency to excrete feces, or no control over fecal excretion thus causing leakage.
Lack of Sexual Drive: Prostate cancer in men affects a body part that is deemed very personal. The inactivity signals aging, which is a source of stress, but it is actually more than that. One of the signs of prostate cancer is erectile dysfunction the odds of which are elevated after getting treatment for this cancer. Androgen Deprivation Therapy is when this cancer is ought to be treated by decreasing the levels of testosterone, and that can affect your sex life adversely.
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What Was Your First Prostate
Fred: I didnt expect it, so it was a very new sensation. It was like feeling someone lighting a fire in my feet and feeling it slowly spread all the way up my body. Slowly moving through my torso and making me shiver. I was in shock!
Alan: My first prostate-induced orgasm felt like an out of body explosion. My head was dizzy for like a minute afterward, and I had this absolutely incredible rush of nothing but pleasure. Needless to say, I was hooked and wanted to keep going.
Evan: My first prostate induced orgasm was because of a prostate toy I bought a few years ago. I never had one before using it. It was pretty hot because the toy got me really close to ejaculating without touching my dick. Then all it took was a little stroke, and I shot everywhere.
Drew: I remember the first time pretty vividly. I was having sex with a fuckbuddy and they repositioned me on my back with my legs up on their shoulders. They started pounding away at my hole and must’ve found just the right angle or something because a whole new wave of pleasure and sensation came over me. I’ve never looked back since.
It was heaven. I almost didn’t understand what was happening. That there could be so much sensation, throughout every inch of my body, was brand new to me.
Ryan: The first time I realized I liked it up the butt and really hit my prostate myself was when I was 16. I got my first vibrator and really went to town on my own ass.
Screening For Prostate Cancer
There are no tests available with sufficient accuracy to screen populations of men for early signs of prostate cancer. However, early detection and treatment can significantly improve prostate cancer survival.
The test most commonly used to aid early detection of prostate cancer is the prostate specific antigen blood test. This is not a diagnostic test as it can only indicate changes in the prostate. If you are concerned about prostate cancer you should talk to your doctor and make an informed choice about whether to have one of the tests designed to find early signs of prostate cancer, in view of the potential risks and benefits.
There are no proven measures to prevent prostate cancer.
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Prostate Cancer Can Cause Pain In Many Areas And Not Just Because Of Bone Spread But Also Due To Other Features Of The Disease
It can feel different ways depending on the nature of the cause.
Curable early stage prostate cancer usually does not cause pain, says Sean Cavanaugh, MD, Chief of Radiation Oncology, Cancer Treatment Centers of America at Southeastern Regional Medical Center.
That is the most important message do not use pain as a primary screening mechanism for prostate cancer.
Most pain associated with prostate cancer is from bone metastases in stage IV disease.
For example, men with bone metastases to their spine may have pain in their back.
Prostate cancer can spread to the ribs , pelvis and femur .
Even shoulder and arm pain are possible when a metastatic tumor is pressing against the spine.
Bone metastases occur in approximately 80% of patients with advanced prostate cancer, says the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
When prostate cancer spreads to other parts of the body, it almost always goes first to the bones.
Bone pain from prostate cancer can feel like a dull ache or feel like a toothache in the bones, or you may feel a sharper sensation.
Can worsen with movement
May come and go or be constant
How Fast Does Prostate Cancer Spread To The Bones
Early detection can catch prostate cancer even before there are any symptoms. Some types of prostate cancer grow very slowly.
There are four main stages of prostate cancer. Within each stage, the cancer is graded based on factors like the size of tumor, prostate-specific antigen level, and other clinical signs.
If the cancer has spread to the bones, its considered to be the most advanced, or stage 4.
Newer lab tests look at the genes inside cancer cells. This can provide more information on how quickly the prostate cancer may progress.
Theres also a grading system known as the Gleason system, which assigns the cancer into a grade group based on how closely it resembles normal tissue.
During the biopsy to diagnose prostate cancer, the cells are closely examined. The more abnormal cells that are in the biopsy sample, the higher the Gleason score and grade group.
When more abnormal cells are present, the cancer is more likely to spread quickly.
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Can I Check For Prostate Cancer At Home
It is strongly advised under any circumstances not to self-examine for prostate cancer at home either by yourself or with a partner. Not only does it take a skilled professional to assess how the prostate feels to make an accurate determination of overall prostate health, self-examinations have the potential to cause injury.
âSince the prostate is an internal gland, itâs extremely important that only licensed medical professionals conduct the exam. At-home self-exams should not be administered in order to avoid injury or self-harm. Regular screening is important for prostate cancer, as the disease often does not present symptoms until it is too late. Talk to your doctor about making sure you receive a regular DRE check-up at each visit.â
While actually screening yourself for prostate cancer at home is ill advised, you can still monitor your risk factors for prostate cancer between yearly check-ups, like practicing a healthy diet and exercising regularly.
How Can I Check Myself For Prostate Cancer
For a disease that is the second most fatal cancer in men, its symptoms are not very apparent. It can be quite a task to detect the presence of prostate cancer, unless it becomes enormous and presses on the urethra, thus causing trouble in its regular functions. As discussed before, what you may suffer through in prostate cancer can be just another urinary abnormality too. Knowing the risks is how you can make it a little easier for yourself.
Since PSA testing has been controversial over the years it was only recently that a new way of testing yourself at home was developed. The East Anglia, Norfolk, and Norwich Universitys science management departments collaborated to invent whats called a PUR test. You can now simply test the possibility of having prostate cancer by collecting your first urine of the day and sending it for an examination. The results have proven to show more biomarkers of prostate cancer than what is visible after a digital rectal exam.
PUR test is more of a diagnostic where the level of prostate malignancy can be detected. It can save you a lot of time of surveillance that is usually a requirement when a patient is undergoing tumor development. So, if youre facing any of the symptoms mentioned before specifically related to urine problems do a PUR test collection and home and get it tested to be on the safe side.
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What Does Prostate Cancer Feel Like
Difficulty with urination frequency, weak stream, trouble getting started, etc. is usually a first sign of prostate cancer. But the early symptoms can also come from benign prostate conditions, so diagnostic testing is important.
The prostate is the gland in a mans pelvis that wraps around the urethra and secretes the fluid part of semen. A working prostate is crucial for ejaculation and sexual intercourse.
Prostate cancer is one of the most common cancers in men. Age, family history, nationality, obesity and other factors determine your risk for prostate cancer.
Pain As Symptom Of Prostate Cancer
Early diagnosis of prostate cancer is very difficult since the symptoms of the disease usually do not manifest until advanced stages. Pain is one of these symptoms and it can be experienced very differently from patient to patient. In earlier stages of prostate cancer, pain can occur during urination or ejaculation, which is related to the blockage caused by cancer growth in the prostate. The tumors start to pressure the nearby organs and tissues, causing the pain. In more advanced cases, the pain may spread to the pelvis, lower back, ribs, or upper thighs, and in the bones of those areas.
Approximately 70% to 85% of patients with advanced prostate cancer have associated clinically apparent bone metastases, while another 20% to 25% have metastatic liver lesions, explain the authors of the study Pain Management in Patients With Advanced Prostate Cancer.In addition to pelvic pain associated with primary tumor extension, these metastatic lesions cause pain that ranges from mild to very severe and may require extensive, highly individualized pain management. Pain is perhaps the one aspect of cancer that patients fear most, and effective pain control is a critical issue for patients and often a challenge for clinicians.
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What Is Bph And How Does It Affect Me
The prostate gland surrounds the urethra and assists in reproduction. As a man ages, the prostate gets larger and begins to put pressure on the bladder and urethra, causing uncomfortable symptoms. It may be responsible for blocking the flow of urine out of the bladder, and can cause issues in the bladder, urinary tract, or kidneys.
Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia: The Condition Symptoms And Complications
The problem of an enlarged prostrate, otherwise medically known as benign prostatic hyperplasia or the benign enlargement of the prostate, is a non-cancerous enlargement of the prostate. It is a condition which can greatly affect the way men pass urine. While what causes BPH is not exactly clear, it is normally said to be a part of the aging process in men and is said to be caused by the changes in cell growth and hormonal balance.
How does BPH happen?BPH is the hyperplasia of prostatic epithelial and stromal cells which result in the formation of discrete, large nodules in the prostates transition zone. When they become sufficiently large, the nodules push forward, narrowing the urethra that leads to a greater resistance to urine flow from the bladder . This causes the bladder to work harder during the voiding process, leading possibly to weakness, instability or progressive hypertrophy of the bladder muscle.
If an enlarged prostate causes bladder obstruction and remains untreated, there could be complications such as bladder stones, recurrent urinary tract infections, and even chronic kidney disease, which could lead to possible kidney failure.
Enlarged prostate symptomsWhen the prostate becomes enlarged, it places pressure on the urethra and consequently, the bladder. Men suffering from BPH show the following symptoms:
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Drugs To Treat Cancer Spread To Bone
If prostate cancer spreads to other parts of the body, it almost always goes to the bones first. These areas of cancer spread can cause pain and weak bones that might break. Medicines that can help strengthen the bones and lower the chance of fracture are bisphosphonates and denosumab. Sometimes, radiation, radiopharmaceuticals, or pain medicines are given for pain control.
Side effects of bone medicines
A serious side effect of bisphosphonates and denosumab is damage to the jaw, also called osteonecrosis of the jaw . Most people will need to get approval from their dentist before starting one of these drugs.
Checking For Psa At Home
Itâs best to look for prostate symptoms and then screen using a Prostate Specific Antigen blood test. While there is no physical way for you to check for prostate cancer at home, there are at-home screening options for PSA. imaware⢠at-home test for PSA can help screen you for prostate issues.
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Symptoms Of Prostate Cancer
Once a tumor causes your prostate gland to swell, or once cancer spreads beyond your prostate, you may have symptoms including:
- The need to pee often, especially at night
- Trouble starting or stopping a stream of urine
- A weak stream or one that starts and stops
- Leaking pee when you laugh or cough
- Not being able to pee standing up
- Pain or burning when you pee
- Pain or burning when you ejaculate
- Less fluid when you ejaculate
- Blood in your pee or semen
- Pressure or pain in your rectum
- Pain or stiffness in your lower back, hips, pelvis, or thighs
- New trouble getting an erection
These arenât symptoms of the cancer itself. They happen because the cancer growth is blocking your prostate.