Oct 10
After you have been diagnose having a prostate cancer, the next step would be to give you a series of test to find out if the most cancers cells are just contained in the prostate gland or has already spread with other parts of the body. The process of finding is known as staging.
The result of the test which was given and other information gathered will be the basis in finding the stage of the disease. This is required so that the doctor will have an idea what treatment plan is appropriate for your stage. One of the test or procedure that is being done in staging process is called Radionuclide bone scan. This is a procedure to understand if the cancer cells distribute in the bone.
In Stage I prostate cancer, the actual malignant cancer cells are just contained in the prostate glands. Using needle biopsy, most cancers cells is found about one half or less of the one lobe of prostate. Most of the cancer cells are not visible by image resolution and cannot be felt when having a digital rectal exam. The level of PSA is lower that Ten the Gleason score is 6.
In Stage II, it is more advanced than the Stage I but still the cancers cells were not able to spread outside the prostate. It is divided into Phase IIA or Stage IIB. The PSA level in Stage IIA is at least Ten but lower than 20 while the Gleason score is 7. Cancer is located more or less one-half lobe of the prostate. In Phase IIB on the other and, cancer is located both lobes of the prostate. It is not visible still by image resolution yet nor felt throughout rectal exam.
In the Phase III, the cancer cells have already distribute outside the prostate gland. It may spread towards the nearby tissues even to the actual seminal vesicles, a gland that produces the actual semen. It does not reach faraway areas yet where other organs and lymph nodes are found. The actual PSA is already at any level and the Gleason score is ranging from 2 to 10.
Phase IV is the final stage. In this stage, cancer cells has spread not only to the actual seminal vesicles but to nearby internal organs like the bladder, rectum as well as the pelvic wall. Others even spread to lymph nodes and close by bones. The most common symptoms of most cancers already in Stage Intravenous is trouble with urinating, blood in urine, severe pain in the lower abdomen, weak point and nausea. By knowing the stage of your cancer, your doctor are now able to device a treatment plan suitable for your case. Additional details can be found through visiting http://www.ProstateCancerStages.net.
Oct 09
A prostate is found in the reproductive system from the male found just below the other excretory organ called bladder and it is in front of the lower part of the intestine. It just the same size as the walnut and surrounds most part of the urethra. This gland produces liquids which is part of the semen.
Prostate cancer is a type of excretory disease wherein there is an abnormal growth of malignant cells type in the prostate’s tissues. This is mostly feasible on older men. As they age, their prostate becomes bigger and will have the tendency to block either the bladder or even the urethra. Difficulty in urinating and often interfere with sexual function occurs.
Treatment options for prostate cancer depend on several factors. One is on your overall health, how fast the cancer is spreading, how much it’s spread and the possible side effects of the treatment. If the most cancers is diagnosed early, treatment right away may not be necessary, others may not need it after all. Doctors would recommend what you call an active surveillance. It includes normal blood tests, biopsies and anal exams to take note from the progress of the cancer.
If it is progressing, you need to talk to your physician to come up with a treatment plan that is suited for your cancer stage. One of the possible treatments is through radiation therapy. This method makes use of powerful energy to kill the most cancers cells. There are two ways of providing radiation: external beam radiation or brachytherapy where rice-sized radioactive seeds tend to be implanted in your prostate tissues.
Another treatment is the use of hormone therapy to stop the body from producing testosterone, the male hormone. Remember the most cancers cells rely on this man hormone in order to grow. Cancer cells die down or simply grow slowly without the way to obtain these hormones. The medicine that will be used is either to stop the body from producing hormone or to block the androgenic hormone or testosterone to ever reaching the cells of cancer. Orchiectomy or the removal of testicles is another option. This is to reduce the level of androgenic hormone or testosterone.
The hormone therapy is used for men with advanced cancer. The possible side effects are hot flashes, erectile dysfunction, and weight gain and reduced sex drive. Although these treatments may have side effects depending on the response of the entire body, possibility of cure is at hands. Just make sure to discuss with your physician which is the most appropriate and the most necessary treatment for your most cancers. More details can be found when you will visit this site http://www.ProstrateCancerTreatment.org.
Oct 08
There are various treatments in prostate cancer. All these especially the radiotherapy is aiming to destroy just the malignant tumor or the most cancers cells. Most of the time though not just the cancer cells are destroyed but the healthy cells and tissues.
Side effects will be experienced by the individual. A side effect is the undesirable motion of the treatment or the impact of the drug given about the patient. Its duration would depend about the type of treatment that was given and varies from one individual to the next. Some of the side effects result from the treatment used to stop multiplication of cancer. The others are because of the disease itself. The two known major side effects suffered by a prostate cancer patient in their therapy are erectile dysfunction and urinary incontinence.
Failure to hold urine inside the bladder voluntarily or inability to control the flow of the pee which is called urinary incontinence. Some patients regain control after a few weeks of surgery and rays treatment. There are exercises that really help a patient regain this kind of negative effects. They call it Kegel exercise. You will find medications that may help relieve also incontinence. Talk to your doctor about this.
Erectile dysfunction is the failure to achieve or even maintain an erection which is required during sexual intercourse. Ninety percent will experience impotence especially if they undergone orchiectomy or the removal of testicles. Hormonal treatment also causes impotence simply because one of the aims of this treatment methods are to reduce the male hormone testosterone level.
Other side effects of the different treatment of prostate cancer include infertility, pain and weakening of the bone fragments. There are cases the cancer spreads to the bones already. This condition would result to a lot of agonizing pain and will weaken the bone which later result to fracture if not treated. You need to talk to your doctor about these before the start of your strategy to you to come up with the possible therapy with fewer side effects or even tolerable side effects.
Men receiving treatment may have one or more of these negative effects but take note not all males will have the same effect; other people may not have at all. Let your doctor know the side effects you are struggling. They are there with you and with the health care team will help you to be more comfortable as possible. There are support services you can turn to if you think like talking about your pain. Support groups and counseling helps a lot in managing the negative effects you are suffering. Gather more details through visiting http://www.ProstateCancerSideEffects.com.
Oct 07
Prostate-Specific Antigen or PSA is a substance that the cells of prostate are producing. It is found mostly in semen, but a tiny bit of it can be found in the blood. Elevated degree of this substance may or may not be an indication that there is a prostate cancer or an enlargement of prostate called prostatitis on the male individual.
Most of the healthy men’s PSA level is under four nanogram/milliliter of bloodstream. This figure has been used as a cutoff period; any changes in this particular level would mean a possible trouble with the prostate gland. Meaning the chance of having a prostate cancer increases as the PSA level goes up. PSA level may also be used by the doctor for testing purposes. This is one way of testing the presence of the cancer even when there are no symptoms projected.
There are reviews that men with below 4 PSA have a cancer whenever biopsy. When the PSA level is in the borderline range meaning between 4 and Ten, you have about one in four possibility of having cancer. When it is more than 10, 50% is your chance of having a cancer. This test isn’t 100%sure though. You need to undergo another test like the digital anal exam or DRE for the physician to make certain whether indeed prostate cancer exists or not. If both assessments are used and resulted to some positive prostate cancer, it is most likely at the initial phase and is treatable. This is the advantage of individual who have undergone series of assessments.
PSA test can help you spot the presence of possible prostate cancer, but it could not inform how dangerous the cancer is. The good thing about this test is the fact that, an elevated PSA level would give the individual an opportunity to treat as early a potential the cancer that they never would have known they have. Treatment can be plan with the doctor prior to it becomes serious and untreatable which may lead to death. Surgery or rays is the possible treatment of the cancer depending on the severity of the disease.
Other reasons why there is an increase in the actual PSA level includes: an enlarge prostate gland as the men grow older, as the men grows old, the actual PSA level also increases even if there is no abnormality in their prostate, An infection of the prostate gland called prostatitis and during ejaculation which happens just for a short time. Whatever the reason for the rise in the level of PSA above or below normal, a necessity to see your doctor is a must enemy further testing. This is also for your peace of mind which you must go through. For more details, just simply visit this site http://www.PSALevels.org.
Sep 30
Most men are developing the enlarged prostate at one point of their lives. Symptoms of prostate enlargement include difficulties at the start of urination, frequent urination, and weaker flow of urine. Men suffering these symptoms must seek medical help to make sure that only the enlargement of prostate may be the problem and not the prostate cancer.
Prostate cancer has been the 2nd largest cause of death in males. The problem with the prostate cancer is the symptoms. They don’t usually show during the early stages, and once it manifest, it is already in the late stages making it hard to treat. The major the signs of the prostate cancer is similar with the the signs of prostate enlargement although the advanced stages include back pains, thigh and hip discomfort, fatigue and unexplained weight loss.
Usually, prostate cancer could be treated by means of radiation therapy and surgery. The most common method of treatment is surgery in the early stages of cancer. However, you have the risk involved with surgery so most men are turning into radiation therapy.
Radiation therapy is working by means of killing cancer cells and not the healthy cells. Two of the most common methods of radiation therapy are the external beam radiation and the seed therapy. Seed treatments are involving the implants of smaller amount of the radioactive materials from the prostate. These radioactive materials is going to be lasting for two years so the cancer cells will totally be eliminated.
The external beam treatments are a painless radiation therapy as well as an out patient process. The beam is going to be focused and aim the areas affected by the cancer. Once the cancer areas have spread, this radiation can still aim the spread of cancer cells too. The treatment will last for 5 days as well as over one week.
Side effects in the prostate radiation therapy include impotence, incontinence and fatigue. However, not all of the patients will likely suffer the side effects. The treatment for early stages of the prostate cancer usually becomes successful. While the prostate cancer that are diagnosed at the later stage, the success of the treatment usually drops to 50%. View more at http://prostateradiation.org/blog/.