cancer de la prostate

You have only to look at the statistics to realize that prostatic cancer is a major problem for the world's male population.

In the United States alone a man will be diagnosed as having prostatic cancer every two and a half minutes. That's pretty close to a quarter of a million American men who will be diagnosed with prostatic cancer this year!

Prostatic cancer is now the most commonly seen form of cancer in American men and is the second leading cause of cancer death in the United States. This year alone prostatic cancer is expected to claim the lives of more than 30,000 American men.

The dangers posed by prostatic cancer are very real and yet, strangely enough, a large percentage of the deaths we will see this year from prostatic cancer could have been avoided. But perhaps things are starting to change.

In recent years we have seen the deaths of a number of prominent individuals from prostatic cancer and, perhaps more importantly, have witnessed other well know figures talking openly and publicly about their own experiences of battling and overcoming this disease. And herein lies the problem.

Get a group of men together and they'll happily talk about sport or politics or even sex, but when it comes to personal matters concerning their own sexual organs and, in particular problems in that department, they won't say a word. They probably won't even mention it to their partners and certainly wouldn't dream of discussing it with their doctor. But why?

If you've got cramp in your legs, are having problems gripping things with your hand or are suffering from repeated headaches you'll happily pop along and see the doctor. But, if you're having problems with your waterworks you'll put up with it in the hope that it'll go away by itself or simply put it down to the inevitable consequence of getting older.

In many cases of prostate cancer is slow to develop in its infancy and is confined to the prostate and can be treated relatively easily. Left to its own devices however it will eventually spread and can move out of the prostate gland and literally travel throughout the body. At that stage treatment is extremely difficult and the vast majority of deaths occur in men with advanced prostatic cancer which has spread outside of the prostate gland.

Once you pass the ago of 50 you are risk from a variety of prostatic problems, including prostatic cancer, and, to put it bluntly, you're a fool if you start to experience problems with your waterworks and simply choose to ignore them.

If problems start to appear then call in and see your doctor.

For more information on prostatic cancer please visit http://ProstateCancerExplained.com today.

cancer de la prostate

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 the subject of study and men who turn to chemotherapy is strongly recommended to discuss with the doctors on their experimental study.

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.

For more information about Prostate Cancer Treatment, feel free to visit us at: http://www.prostate-land.com/article-8-Prostate-Cancer-Treatment.html

cancer de la prostate

March is Prostate Cancer Awareness month, so what better time to talk about this disease which kills one man every hour. It is the most common cancer in men, with 35,000 being diagnosed each year, yet research shows that 70% do not know what the prostate is. Here we give you a guide on the symptoms of prostate cancer and how it is diagnosed that are available for prostate cancer.
 
What are the signs and symptoms of prostate cancer?
The following may be signs of prostate cancer:

• A weak urine flow
• Needing to urinate more often, especially at night 
• A feeling that your bladder has not emptied properly
• Difficulty starting to pass urine
• Dribbling urine
• Needing to rush to the toilet, so that you may even leak urine sometimes
• New pain in the lower back, hips or pelvis
• Problems getting or keeping an erection
• Blood in the urine or semen - but this is very rare

Benenden Healthcare, a not for profit healthcare backup offers its members financial help to support the cost of living with diseases such as prostate cancer. Benenden also offers its members regular health screenings so that diseases like prostate cancer can be diagnosed at an early stage.

cancer de la prostate

Although prostate cancer is considered a disease of the elderly man, it has been known to inflict its damage unmanned as young as their early 30s. Heredity seems to play a factor especially in younger patients.

If you are a male over 50, you should consider annual prostate cancer PSA (Prostate Specific Antigen) test. It's a simple a blood test that can help doctors catch the very early cases of prostate cancer. This is a great way to protect yourself from this potentially deadly disease that afflicts men in their later years.

Let me caution you that an elevated PSA result can be caused by a variety of factors and does not necessarily indicate prostate cancer. These other causes include BPH or benign hypertrophy or enlargment of the prostate, and also elevate the PSA test results. Even Prostatitis and Lower Urinary Tract symptoms can show elevated levels of PSA.

The prostate specific antigen test is like any other simple blood test. Blood is drawn by a phlebotomist and sent to the lab for analysis. A normal result from a PSA test, doesn't guarantee that your free from cancer, nor does a higher than normal result mean you DO have cancer

A PSA Count of between 0 - 3.9 nanograms per milliliter of blood is generally considered normal. Levels higher than a 3.9 ng count may indicate there may be a prostate problem which could be anything from a swelling or inflammation, infection or cancer.

It's critical that you follow your doctor's lead in regard to dealing with the Prostate Specific Antigen test results. The results are an indication that something may be happening only. To complicate matters even more, PSA levels can also increase with age. Oh and the relative size of your prostate also plays a factor in interpreting the results.

The point of this is the strongly encourage you to have an annual prostate exam and PSA blood test.

Please do not assume a high PSA reading means that you have prostate cancer. All a high PSI level reading indicates is that there "may" be a problem. Two out of three people with elevated the PSA readings DO NOT have a malignancy. So don't panic!

Here's a few very good reasons why you should consider getting an annual PSA blood test

a. Your doctor is much better able to detect potential prostate cancer even though you have no symptoms.

2. Early detection means a much higher chance of successful treatment and cure

3. The PSA blood test is simple and is recognized as a major contributing factor in the continued drop of prostate cancer deaths

So what we know as patients about the PSA test is that it's not perfect and cannot clearly identified the presence of prostate cancer. All the tests provides is an indicator of a potential benign or cancerous prostate problem

We also know that the term 'normal" in dealing with the PSA test result is subject to interpretation due to many factors. This is why it's critical that your doctor interpret the results.

The PSA test indicated a normal antigen level in about 20% of the cases in men who had early prostate melanoma.

Even with an imperfect test however, it's recognized that the PSA is a good indicator and tool in our arsenal to fight this deadly disease. Note that a Harvard study done in 2005 indicated that those men having a yearly PSA test and monitoring of PSA levels were almost 3 times less likely to die for prostate cancer than those who didn't bother with the PSA

Finally, according to the Centers for Disease Control ( CDC ), is the introduction 20 years ago of any use of the PSA test, deaths from prostate cancer have fallen by one third. Prostate cancer if caught in its early stages is treatable and curable. Don't wait until it is too late to have this important test done

Abigail Franks has written many articles on the subject of prostate cancer. On her site you can find valuable information about Prostate Cancer and more about early detection with Prostate Cancer Tests [http://www.prostate-cancer-treatment-expert.com/blood-test-for-prostate-cancer.html]

cancer de la prostate

Patients who suffer from prostate cancer have many alternatives to treat their affection but they should know all the opinions and investigate therapies before they choose the treatment that suits them. In addition to this, a patient who decides to use any alternative of complementary approaches needs to take into consideration the doctor's advice and start a treatment in a short time.

First of all, a person who suffer from prostate cancer should ask for a second opinion, inform himself from books or internet about his condition and also take along detailed list of questions and record the answers. Moreover, the patient shoud be aware of the doctor's experience in treating prostate cancer and also that the doctors in charge should treat the whole patient, not just the prostate and not in the last place the family or a friend support may help a lot.

Furthermore, choosing a treatment for prostate cancer can be a hard task for the patient and for the doctors as well. The treatments are divided in certain groups and each procedure is performed by a specialist. For instance, radiation oncologists in radiation, urologists usually specialize in surgery and cryoablation, both internal and external and usually used alone or in combination. Each type of treatment seem to bring successfully results, including no immediate treatment other than careful observation for elder men.

On the other hand, these types of treatments like surgery, cryoablation and radiation can have side effects, such as impotence and incontinence. In addition, other side effects are loss of sexual desire, weight gain and also for the realization of hormone therapy, the amount of testosterone in the bloodstream is reduced and thus deprives them of a prostate tumor of a necessary stimulus, used to prolong life and slow the disease progress.

Moreover, many clinical trials are testing new treatments for prostate cancer and patients can choose the right treatment depending on the type of cancer that they have. So, some of the experimental treatments which seem to be quite effective are: chemotherapy which uses new drugs in order to help men with advanced prostate cancer, immunotherapy which helps the body to fight against cancer and also neoadjuvant hormonal therapy that has the role in reducing the prostate tumor in order to increase success rates of surgery or radiation.

All in all, people who suffer from prostate should weight carefully the options and choose the right procedure in a short time. Moreover, immunotherapies may help men with late-stage cancer and also some of these therapies can be used to prevent recurrence of cancer following surgery or radiation.

For more information about prostate cancer treatment [http://www.prostate-cancer-center.com/prostate-cancer-treatment.htm] and about prostate please review this web site http://www.prostate-cancer-center.com

cancer de la prostate