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Why Is Prostate Cancer So Common

Prostate Cancer Is Common Among Men Learn The Risk Factors And Talk To Your Doctor About Screening

Why is Prostate Cancer So Common? | Dr. Darshil Shah

According to the American Cancer Society, 1 in 8 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in their lifetime. Prostate cancer is more likely to develop in African American men. It is the second most commonly diagnosed cancer among men after skin cancer.

Although prostate cancer affects many men, an early diagnosis doesn’t usually carry a poor prognosis. In fact, when discovered early, prostate cancer is highly treatable, and most men continue to live healthy lives.

“The best way to combat prostate cancer is to be aware of the risk factors and symptoms so you and your doctor can develop a strategy for early detection that is appropriate for your level of risk,” says Timothy Powell, M.D., urologist with Riverside Health System.

Family History And Genetics

Your family history is information about any health problems that have affected your family. Families have many common factors, such as their genes, environment and lifestyle. Together, these factors can help suggest if you are more likely to get some health conditions.

Inside every cell in our body is a set of instructions called genes. These are passed down from our parents. Genes control how the body grows, works and what it looks like. If something goes wrong with one or more genes , it can sometimes cause cancer.

Is prostate cancer hereditary?

If people in your family have prostate cancer or breast cancer, it might increase your own risk of getting prostate cancer. This is because you may have inherited the same faulty genes.

My father had prostate cancer. What are my risks?

  • You are two and a half times more likely to get prostate cancer if your father or brother has had it, compared to a man who has no relatives with prostate cancer.
  • Your chance of getting prostate cancer may be even greater if your father or brother was under 60 when he was diagnosed, or if you have more than one close relative with prostate cancer.
  • Your risk of getting prostate cancer may also be higher if your mother or sister has had breast cancer.

Do you have a family history of prostate cancer?

If you’re over 45 and your father or brother has had prostate cancer, you may want to talk to your GP. Our Specialist Nurses can also help you understand your hereditary risk of prostate cancer.

How Cancer Causes Death

Even though cancer can lead to death, its not necessarily cancer that causes someone to die. Causes of cancer deaths can include:

  • Organ failure due to the size and stress of a tumor
  • Complications during surgery
  • Organ rupture due to tumor size
  • Infection due to the immune systems ability to fight off illness while on cancer treatment

Since all the organs in our body connect one way or another, all it takes is for one to begin shutting down, and the rest may start to follow suit. In the end, the person with cancer passes away.

Depending on the type of cancer, the cause of death can vary. Here are some more details on how cancer can cause death.

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Why Does Prostate Cancer Cause Death

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Early Stage Prostate Cancer

Why do some men avoid prostate cancer screening? Local ...

If the cancer is small and localized, a doctor may recommend:

Watchful waiting or monitoring

The doctor may check PSA blood levels regularly but take no immediate action.

Prostate cancer grows slowly, and the risk of side effects may outweigh the need for immediate treatment.

Surgery

A surgeon may carry out a prostatectomy. They can remove the prostate gland using either laparoscopic or open surgery.

Radiation therapy

Options include:

Brachytherapy: A doctor will implant radioactive seeds into the prostate to deliver targeted radiation treatment.

Conformal radiation therapy: This targets a specific area, minimizing the risk to healthy tissue. Another type, called intensity modulated radiation therapy, uses beams with variable intensity.

Treatment will depend on various factors. A doctor will discuss the best option for the individual.

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How To Detect Prostate Cancer Symptoms

Put simply, in order to detect prostate cancer symptoms as early on as possible, you really need to be in tune with your body. Even subtle changes could help you figure out that something is not quite right and that you should talk to your doctor.

Because there are a variety of prostate cancer symptoms in males, it could be difficult to know when something is really serious and when it is something that you do not really need to worry about, but your doctor will always be there to steer you in the right direction. When in doubt, talk to your doctor about the symptoms that you are experiencing, even if you have only been experiencing them for a short period of time, as the longer you wait, the more advanced cancer could become.

*All individuals are unique. Your results can and will vary.

Are Prostate Problems Always A Sign Of Prostate Cancer

Not all growths in the prostate are cancerous, and not all prostate problems indicate cancer. Other conditions that cause similar prostate cancer symptoms include:

  • Benign prostatic hyperplasia : At some point, almost every man will develop benign prostatic hyperplasia . This condition enlarges the prostate gland but doesnt increase cancer risk. The swollen gland squeezes the urethra and blocks the flow of semen and urine. Medications, and sometimes surgery, can help.
  • Prostatitis: Men younger than 50 are more prone to prostatitis, inflammation and swelling of the prostate gland. Bacterial infections are often the cause. Treatments include antibiotics or other medications.

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Who Is At Risk For Prostate Cancer

All men are at risk for prostate cancer, but African-American men are more likely to get prostate cancer than other men.

All men are at risk for prostate cancer. Out of every 100 American men, about 13 will get prostate cancer during their lifetime, and about 2 to 3 men will die from prostate cancer.

The most common risk factor is age. The older a man is, the greater the chance of getting prostate cancer.

Some men are at increased risk for prostate cancer. You are at increased risk for getting or dying from prostate cancer if you are African-American or have a family history of prostate cancer.

Possible Changes In Breathing

Men’s Health Month – Prostate Cancer
  • Breathing may speed up and slow down due to less blood circulation and build-up of waste products in the body
  • Patient may grunt while breathing
  • Neck muscles may look tight to help breathe
  • Mucus in the back of the throat may cause rattling or gurgling with each breath
  • The patient may not breathe for periods of up 10 to 30 seconds
  • How Does Prostate Cancer Kill You in the End? Center
  • Prostate cancer is the most common cancer after skin cancer in men in the US and the second leading cause of cancer death. Prostate-specific antigen testing has made the detection of prostate cancer easier in its early stages. Ninety-two out of 100 men get diagnosed when the cancer is limited to the prostate.

    Most men are diagnosed with prostate cancer in their senior years and only 1 out of 36 men die from it. Death from prostate cancer most often happens when cancer has spread to other organs in the body. This is known as the advanced stage of prostate cancer.

    The chances of survival decrease as cancer spreads beyond the prostate. If cancer has metastasized to other parts of the body, only three out of 10 men will survive for five years after the diagnosis.

    Advanced stage prostate cancer or metastasized prostate cancer

    Prostate cancer can kill in the end through metastases that can develop in

    Metastasis to the liver can affect the livers ability to filter out toxins from the body. This can eventually lead to jaundice, nausea, loss of appetite and weight loss.

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    Can Prostate Cancer Treatment Affect Your Quality Of Life

    Your age and overall health will make a difference in how treatment may affect your quality of life. Any health problems you have before youre treated, especially urinary, bowel or sexual function problems, will affect how you recover. Both surgery and radiation can cause urinary incontinence or impotence .

    Understanding The Rise In Cancer Rates To Help You Understand Your Own Risk

    Cancer is a complex disease that can grow out of a variety of risk factors, which makes it as difficult to manage as it is to explain. However, advances in research and therapies have clarified how cancer starts, and why it seems like so many more people are suffering from cancer than ever before.

    The vast majority of cancers can be traced to genetic mutations that are, to a certain extent, totally natural. As your cells grow, develop, die, and repeat the process, random genetic mutations will take place that make some cells resistant to damage or other healthy cells more prone to dying off.

    Once these mutations overpower the surrounding healthy cells, the mutated cells can grow together to form a cancerous tumor and effectively takeover that region.

    So what could account for the rise in cancer cases? While human genes havent changed drastically over recent years, the conditions in and around them have shifted.

    Lifestyle factors, like diet and bad habits, certainly play a role in your cellular health, as will your life expectancy, and even the job you do. The rates of many chronic diseases have fallen in the past few decades, but cancer is not behaving in the same fashion, for a few reasons.

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    Why Most Prostate Cancer Treatments Are Fake

    The radical prostatectomy is a scientific fraud that fails to save significant numbers of lives and only causes great suffering. Even the FDA approved and standard practice labels for the robotic prostatectomy are designed to fool the public into believing that the surgery has been proven to be safe and effective when all standard scientific evidenced-based testing was actually bypassed using the FDAs 510 loophole. Even other treatment options like cryo, laser and HIFU have used this loophole to pretend their FDA approval was real.

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    What Are Bone Metastases With Prostate Cancer

    All you need to know about Prostate Cancer

    The ACS describes bone metastases as areas of bone containing cancer cells that have spread from another place in the body. In the case of prostate cancer, the cells have spread beyond the prostate gland. Since the cancer cells originated in the prostate gland, the cancer is referred to as metastatic prostate cancer.

    The cancer cells spread to the bones by breaking away from the prostate gland and escaping attack from your immune system as they travel to your bones.

    These cancer cells then grow new tumors in your bones. Cancer can spread to any bone in the body, but the spine is most often affected. Other areas cancer cells commonly travel to, according to the ACS, include the pelvis, upper legs and arms, and the ribs.

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    How Do You Decide Whether To Get A Psa Scan

    As you can see, theres a lot of debate. To help cut through, the RACGP has published a decision-making tool.

    Take 2000 men aged between 55 and 69, and give 1000 of them an annual PSA test every year for 11 years. What happens?

    Five men will die from prostate cancer in the untested group and four in the tested group. Overall, one life will be saved. Some would argue this is an excellent thing mortality cut by about 20 per cent.

    However, the tested group bear significant side effects. Some 87 men will learn their test was a false positive after having a surgical biopsy. Some 25 men will choose to be treated because they are fearful of their cancers as a result of the treatment, seven to 10 men will experience impotence or incontinence. Theres a mental dimension as well men diagnosed with low-risk prostate cancer are more likely to develop anxiety and depression.

    Importantly, because of the amount of time it takes for prostate cancer to kill, men with life expectancies of fewer than 10 to 15 years are unlikely to get much benefit from screening.

    For Will McDonald, over-diagnosis wasnt a problem. The cancer had spread he needed treatment immediately. He went through chemotherapy, radiotherapy and hormone deprivation therapy, stripping nearly all the testosterone from his body.

    I feel very fortunate to be able to say this, but it barely touched the sides. I had so little side effects, I was so lucky, he says.

    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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    Prostate Cancer: A Guide For Aging Men

    Prostate cancer is one of the most frequently diagnosed cancers in the world, despite it only being diagnosed in males . In fact, more than 70 percent of men over the age of 80 have some quantity of cancer cells in their prostate.

    Its so common that it sometimes doesnt go diagnosed until autopsies are performed, though that doesnt mean the cancer is the cause of death. On the contrary, the overall prognosis for men diagnosed with prostate cancer is as positive as you can get when talking about the dreaded c word. The five-year survival rates for the disease are close to 100 percent, especially when talking about prostate cancer that is caught early on in the processbefore it spreads.

    The five-year survival rates for the disease are close to 100 percent, especially when talking about prostate cancer that is caught early on in the processbefore it spreads.

    Nevertheless, prostate cancer is serious business, and the best way to handle a diagnosis is to be informed. Lets take a look at the frequency at which its diagnosed, how youre tested for it, how it can affect your daily life, and what we can do to try and prevent the disease.

    Average Age of Prostate Cancer Diagnosis

    What Makes Prostate Cancer Become Aggressive Study Investigates

    Enlarged Prostate Signs & Symptoms (& Why They Occur)

    They suggest that the finding could help predict disease aggressiveness, improve personalized treatments, and open the door to precision medicine for advanced prostate cancer.

    In a study paper now published in the journal Cell, they describe how they investigated a genomic variant known to be linked to aggressive prostate cancer.

    Using state-of-the-art tools, they confirmed the link in a large group of people with prostate cancer.

    They also identified how the variant influences a genetic circuit involving three genes that could potentially drive the disease to an incurable stage.

    The genomic variant is a difference in a DNA building block located in chromosome 19q13 that is known as the single nucleotide polymorphism rs11672691.

    Previous studies had already linked this particular variant to aggressive prostate cancer. But they did not explain how the link worked.

    Comparing the order in which millions of DNA building blocks occur in the human genomes of any two individuals would reveal hardly any differences. But where they do occur, these differences or variants can give rise to disease.

    How human genomic variants, says senior study author Gong-Hong Wei, a professor in the Faculty of Biochemistry and Molecular Medicine at the University of Oulu in Finland, cause disease and its progression is in general one of the most compelling puzzles and questions in medicine.

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    Should I Make Any Lifestyle Changes Including In My Diet Or Physical Activity

    Achieving and maintaining a healthy weight by eating a balanced diet with plenty of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, and staying physically active, can help your overall health. These lifestyle changes can also have a positive effect for men with bone metastases, Tagawa says. Both diet and exercise, he says, are things that are under a mans direct control.

    A healthy lifestyle can help you better manage side effects from treatment as well. Try setting small but realistic goals for yourself when it comes to eating a healthy diet and getting plenty of exercise.

    While no single food is likely to have a benefit for prostate cancer, smart food choices may help you feel better day to day. Start by cutting out foods high in sugar, saturated fat, and added flavorings and preservatives.

    If youre not sure which healthy foods to choose, ask your doctor for a referral to a dietitian. This specialist can help you develop a meal plan that includes foods that offer the best chance of slowing the cancers growth and keeping you as healthy as possible.

    As an oncologist, Tagawa says he concentrates on treating the cancer itself, but hes aware that many of the men he sees with advanced prostate cancer are older and more likely than younger men to have health problems that can benefit from diet and exercise.

    And if youre on hormone therapy, talk to your doctor about investing in some weights or elastic resistance bands to support your bone strength too.

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