ThePclinic

One of the most slow growing cancer is prostate cancer.The symptoms are indistinguishable from the benign prostate enlargement.The patient may have symptoms due to obstruction of the lower urinary tract and/or irritation of the same. The symptoms all together called prostatism.

One may have

• Frequency of urination especially at night called nocturia making him almost awake throughout the night.
• Slow start of urination i.e.patient has to patiently wait for the urine stream to start, called hesitancy.
• Patient may not be able to postpone an urge for urination called urgency.
• Precipitancy is fall of a few drops of urine before the person finds a suitable place to pass urine.
• A narrow stream of urine.
• Longer time taken to pass urine.
• A sense of incomplete evacuation of bladder.
• At a later stage may come with acute retention of urine.

• Burning urination may occur.

If these symptoms are seen one has to undergo examination for prostate disease. A simple per rectal digital examination will reveal many information. An enlarged, hard,painless and irregular prostate indicates towards cancer. There are a battery of investigations to confirm cancer.They are

• An ultrasonogram.
• CT scanning.
• Plain x-rays of hip and vertebra.
• Plain x-rays of chest.

Blood tests particularly for prostate cancer are

• Prostate specific antigen
• Acid phosphatase
• Alkaline phosphatase

important apart from routine blood tests.

Tissue diagnosis is an important aspect of confirming cancer of prostate.It is done by

• Fine needle aspiration cytology.

A tissue sampling for heat shock protein-27 is under research to predict the aggressive nature of the disease.It is because some prostate cancer are so slow growing that the patient may pass away from an unrelated condition rather than from prostate cancer.

Many treatment options are available.They are

• Surgery.
• Hormonal manipulation.
• Chemotherapy.
• Radiotherapy in case of bone metastasis.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Killer prostate cancer test hope (news.bbc.co.uk)
• Sexual infection boosts prostate cancer risk (cbc.ca)
• Study: PSA test leads to needless diagnoses (cnn.com)
• Transrectal Ultrasound and Biopsy of the Prostate (findmeacure.com)
• Prostate BPH – Everything You Need to Know (prostatehealthnews.org)

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