Prostate Cancer
May 29, 2009
Prostate is a gland that is situated in the male reproductive organ. It is situated below the bladder. Prostate cancer is a disease that occurs in the prostate. It is a common disease. Specialists consider this disease as the third most common cause of death.
So when does this cancer occur? Like any other cancer when the tissues or cells of the prostate grows rapidly and is out of control. This disease tends to spread from one organ to another.
Here it should be mentioned that this disease affects particularly the bones and the lymph nodes.
Specialists are yet to find the actual cause of this disease. The risk factors depend on a man’s genetics, age, lifestyle, race etc. The risk factor partly depends on exposure to medication as well. But many tend to argue that weight is an important factor, and obesity can cause prostate cancer.
Many researches have been done on this but unfortunately, there haven’t been any fool proof results.
One problem with this particular cancer is that it does not have any particular symptoms at the initial stage. The worst part is that by the time the symptoms are visible, the disease may have spread to other organs.
One of the main symptoms is having urinary problems. The patient may not be able to urinate. Sometimes it becomes hard to start or stop the urine flow.
The patient may need to urinate frequently specially during the night. The patient might also have pain in the hips, lower back, and the upper thighs.
Just to be on the safe side, one can go for a screening test to see if he is infected or not.
One can opt for the tests even if he does not have the symptoms. The two methods are digital rectal exam also known as DRE and the other is a simple blood test.
In a digital rectal exam, the doctors check if there are any lumps in the prostate. And in case of a blood test, the doctors look for the presence of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) in the blood.
But these tests are not accurate because there are times when people have been diagnosed with both a false positive and a negative. For a confirmed result, one can go for a biopsy.
Submit rating:
(No Ratings Yet)
Loading ... Tell a Friend:
Filed Under Health
