Archive for the 'Prostate Cancer' Category

Prostate cancer usually does not have any symptoms until it has spread to other parts of your body.

These symptoms will include blood in your urine, frequency of urination, and you will even see blood in your semen.

You may have prostate cancer and are wondering what kind of complications will arise with this disease.

Complications will come from not only the disease itself, but also the prostate cancer treatments that you will have to fight this disease.

Your physician will want to administer a prostate or rectal exam, to determine if you have prostate cancer. Early detection is best, as with any disease, when fighting prostate cancer.

Sexual Dysfunction

Most men are concerned, when diagnosed with prostate cancer, whether they will have erectile dysfunction or even impotence. These two conditions can occur because of having the cancer, and because of treatments such as radiation and hormone therapy.

Surgery can also cause these two conditions to appear. If these conditions persist you may want to use certain medications to help you maintain an erection, while having sexual intercourse.

The last resort that you may want to consider is implants. These penile implants are surgically implanted and they will help you to obtain, and keep an erection.

With nearly 200,000 diagnosed cases last year, prostate cancer is by far the most common type of cancer among American men.

Moreover, almost a similar number of men, who do not have cancerous tumours, undergo expensive and painful biopsies after being diagnosed with high levels of PSA (prostate-specific antigen).

Critics of the PSA test have called for its halt, citing the large number of unnecessary biopsies.

An experimental technique, which was revealed at a meeting of the American Society of Clinical Ontology last week, might be the solution to the problem.

The technique involves a blood test that examines the activity of six genes associated with prostate tumours and has the potential to significantly increase the accuracy of PSA testing. This means that each year, thousands of men could be spared the pain and expense of undergoing biopsies.

The new technique was tested in a two-year study involving a group of nearly 500 men. The group consisted of healthy men and patients known to have prostrate cancer, as well as subjects with benign prostatic hyperplasia, which is the leading cause of false positives in PSA testing.

In the United States after skin cancer, prostrate cancer causes more male deaths, and there are over one hundred and fifty new cases each year.

Despite the nearly thirty thousand American men that died last year from this disease, a group of doctors do not believe that annual testing is the right approach.

Annually screening males, over fifty years of age, often leads to needless biopsies and there is no hard evidence that it is actually saving any lives.

The test includes a complete physical examination and a sample of blood is taken, this is then analyzed for a prostate specific antigen (PSA) substance.

The results of two different research teams, both carried out on large scales, proved that these routine tests, performed every year, did not do anything to save lives. Although doctors in this field still believe that this type of test could be useful, if it can be used in a better way.

The number of cases of prostrate cancer actually rose significantly in the 80’s when the PSA test was introduced but it is now known that there are a variety of other things that can cause the high presence of this chemical in the blood stream. Something as simple as, sexual activity or even riding a motorbike.

A new type of radiation treatment may soon be offered for patients who suffer from prostate cancer.

Rather than the standard radiation therapy currently given, this new therapy is called stereotactic body radiotherapy.

It is a safe and effective alternative, and uses x-rays to more precisely target the sites where the radiation is to be delivered. It allows higher doses to be given over a shorter course of treatment.

Traditional cancer radiation therapy for prostate cancer can cause urinary problems and damage to the rectal area.

Early study results are promising. Patients who received stereotactic body radiotherapy had no greater number of side effects, and had fewer complications.

With the new therapy, patients were able to receive radiation treatment every other day instead of every day, which may have reduced complications.

So far, three years after receiving the new treatment, none of the patients has had their cancer return.

However, it is too soon to tell whether or not this type of radiation therapy will replace traditional radiation therapy as the standard of care of treatment for prostate cancer; further studies are ongoing. Still, this new method provides hope to many men who will require treatment for this condition.

The risk from advanced prostrate cancer can be greatly reduced by the consumption of a diet high in omega-3 fatty acids, by a significant sixty three percent.

That’s according to research carried out in San Francisco.

Dr John S.Witte, leading the study, said that although the link had been noted previously this was the first time the affect on more highly developed cancers has been seen.

Nearly one thousand patients participated, with over 450 of the men suffering with belligerent forms of the disease and the remaining number being perfectly healthy. All subjects had the COX-2 variant, a gene that is known to increase the risk from this type of cancer.

With the use of a food frequency questionnaire, the men’s diets were analyzed once their COX-2 variant was geno-typed. It all points to the conclusion that by eating more oily fish on a regular basis, for example salmon could prevent prostrate cancer for those with specific variants of the COX-2 gene. In particular, the variant known as rs4647310.

The report published in the Clinical Cancer Research publication, was keen to espouse the now proved virtues of consuming long chain omega-3 fatty acids.

Recent studies show that in the area of prostrate cancer, unlike other forms early detection does not help with the long term prognosis.

Often men that avail of screening can develop side effects from the various tests.

These were some of the things highlighted in recently published studies.

Factors like age, race and family history should be considered before routine tests are carried out. There is still no actual test available that can tell if a tumor is likely to kill or be successfully treated. Usually prostrate cancer is very gradual and hard to detect, barely affecting a sufferer’s health.

It was hoped that a blood test showing antigen levels could be the breakthrough required in this field. However, the rate of false positives is a big disappointment to scientists working to beat this deadly cancer that kills 27,000 men every year in America.

Of the 220,000 cases diagnosed annually there is an almost 100% survival rate if the tumor can be localized in the gland. If not, the rate reduces a third once the cancer spreads to other parts of the body. Urologist Dr. David Penson agrees that the very different course the cancer can take makes determining prognosis much harder.

If you are worried about prostate cancer, the consumption of tomatoes and broccoli can greatly reduce the risks.

Lycopene is a powerful antioxidant found in tomatoes and tomato products which can help to reduce some forms of cancer and heart disease.

When you eat tomatoes and broccoli as part of your daily diet, they provide extra strength in shrinking prostate tumors.

Different bioactive compounds found in these two vegetables show a great effect in preventing cancer [Cancer fighting foods].

Older men with gradually developing prostate cancer should sincerely consider changing their diets to contain more tomatoes and broccoli. To get the effective benefits, men should eat:

• 1.4 cups of raw broccoli and
• 2.5 cups of fresh tomatoes or
• 1 cup of tomato sauce or
• ½ cup of tomato paste

Some researchers said that eating whole foods is better than eating their compounds, i.e. it is best to eat tomatoes instead of taking a lycopene supplement.

Also, it is better to eat cooked tomatoes instead of eating raw tomatoes. Heating and chopping make anti-cancer constituents more bio-available.

Also, eating tomatoes can significantly reduce testosterone levels. Prostate cancer is mainly related to hormonal changes, so changing testosterone levels can reduce the growth.

The prostate is a part of the male reproductive organ. Prostate cancer is the second most common form of cancer.

This form of cancer is so common that one in six men get prostate cancer.

The older men become, the more likely they are to develop prostate cancer. The incidence of this disease is mostly determined by genetics and environmental factors like diet and healthy lifestyle.

This cancer can cause complications such as problems with urination and erectile dysfunction.

Latest developments with prostate cancer

Researchers have recently used genetics in order to learn a great deal about prostate cancer. These researchers have identified many of the genetic mutations that might lead to prostate cancer. The ultimate goal is to develop better medicines that can treat prostate cancer.

From what researchers understand currently, many prostate cancer sufferers inherited traits from one or more parents that likely caused the prostate cancer if the environment was not already a factor.

One DNA strand, inherited from an individual’s mother, can triple the chance of prostate cancer. More rapid discoveries in genetics might occur as scientists develop better genetics technology.