Each year, around the world, one in six men is diagnosed with a prostate cancer. This diagnose can be achieved only with the help of the routinely screening tests and the prostate biopsy.
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The screening tests include the digital rectal exam which is an unpleasant examination done by inserting a gloved finger into the rectum to palpate the size of the prostate gland or to feel any lumps developed on its surface; the prostate specific antigen blood test is a tumor and biological marker which indicates the level of the prostate specific antigen, in normal circumstances being low. These tests have their flaws and don’t exactly indicate the existence of a malignant tumor but rather doctors will have to interpret the obtained results and determine if a further medical investigation is needed or not.



The prostate biopsy and the prostate mapping, or even the newer detection method known as the nomogram, are to be used for obtaining an accurate diagnose. The grading and staging processes determine the characteristics of the identified cancer and help with the prescribing of a correct treatment.

In America, only the lung cancer causes more deaths than the prostate cancer, so prescribing the right treatment is the best method to delay or even stop the spreading process.

This spreading is done through the bloodstream and the lymph vessels, and when the cancer reaches outside the prostate capsule it becomes locally advanced, infecting the surrounding tissues and organs and in the last stages, some of the vital organs such as the lungs and brain.

The factors blamed for the apparition of cancer are various and it all depends on general characteristics such as age, race, genetic inheritance or the working environment; the fact is that each type of cancer is unique or rather say each cancer is unique even if you are talking about the same type because in different individuals similar cancers can develop differently at different stages in different periods of time. This is one of the reasons why the prognosis can be so difficult.

The prognosis is the prediction of how will the cancer develop and what are the chances for a person to recover after being affected by such a malignant medical condition.

The cancer survival statistics or survival rates will identify the percentage of patients who survive a certain type of cancer for a determined amount of time and usually for the prostate cancer there is a five year survival rate established after receiving the initial diagnose, even though the cancer is in its early or late stages.

There are two major prognosis for the outcome of the prostate cancer: doctors expect the treatment to be challenging or they expect the patient to respond well to the treatment.

According to the TNM, tumor, nodes and metastatic, staging system or the Whitmore-Jewett system, the prostate cancer has four stages, the last being the metastatic stage.



If the cancer is detected early the survival rates or curing rates are of about ninety eight percent, especially since the malignant tumors grown slowly, doubling their size once every four years.

The survival rates can be prolonged even if the cancer is locally advanced and had already infected the nearby tissues and organs but when the cancer is metastatized the cure rates suddenly drop very low and the average survival time is one to three years, in some cases the patients will die because of some other health complications or causes.

Doctors will refrain of using grand words such as completely cured when referring to a disease such as cancer because the possibility of cancer recurrence will always remain.

If an early stage cancer had recurred the hormone treatment can prolong survival for years, but unfortunately, in most cases the tumor had already spread to far distance regions of the body.

The lifetime probability of developing a prostate cancer is about sixteen percent and the survival rate of ten years is of about ninety three percent while the fifteen year survival rate is of seventy seven percent, but only if the cancer is in its early stages; for the severe forms of prostate cancer the risk of dying is higher so the chances of survival are rather pessimistic. The survival rates tend to stabilize after fifteen years.

When confronting with a terrible disease such as the prostate cancer, one must make sure to find the right treatment for it and to avoid as much as possible for the cancer to become metastasized. A better option would be to prevent this disease but certain factors such as the age, the genetic background and race are seen as the main causes for the prostate cancer and unfortunately these causes can not be ignored and no one can get rid of them. Bone care is highly important because cancer has the predilection to affect the entire body structures once it starts spreading and the prostate cancer is no different. The most common prostate cancer symptoms are frequent urination or weak urine stream, burning or pain while urinating, blood in urine or semen, painful ejaculation, back pains, stiffness and ache.
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Cancer is a cruel disease which can be cured only if it is detected in its early stages and since it is an abnormal condition, occurring once the normal cells know an uncontrollable and fast growth while the cancerous cells tend to appear and multiply, radical treatment procedures such as prostatectomy and radiation therapy are highly recommended to stop the spreading process. The invasion is done through the bloodstream and the lymph vessels, affecting the surrounding tissues and organs of the gland, and once it becomes locally advanced the original tumor will grow other small, secondary tumors on distanced areas, until the cancer finally becomes metastatic. In this stage the terminal symptoms are painful and if the cancer is left untreated it could lead to a painful but certain death.

In the worst case scenario, the spinal cord will be affected by the prostate cancer which will cause a compression of the spine, resulting in muscle weakness or fecal and urinary incontinence; if the lungs are affected the patient will experience some respiratory problems, excessive coughing and pains in the chest; the cancer will also affect the liver causing abdomen pains and giving to the skin a yellow color. Calcium is important for the bone structures and muscle weakness or fatigues happen when the complex activity of movement, described as the detection of the flow of electrical impulses by the muscle cells and generated by the brain after giving them the signal to contract when calcium is released by the sarcoplasmic reticulum, is not working very well.

The leg pain can be an early symptom or a terminal symptom, but a correct diagnose can only be put after the routine screening tests or after the prostate biopsy is done. The metastatic cancer will affect the bone structures because as a main characteristic, cancer will affect first the bones: the pelvis, the ribs, the spinal cord, the vertebrae and the leg bones. It is not uncommon for prostate cancer patients to report extreme leg pains and that usually happens in almost forty per cent of the cases. A healthy, nutritional diet, rich in antioxidants and mineral supplements such as selenium, zinc and calcium, is often recommended not only by herbalists but also by doctors, because prevention is highly important. If you experience any strange symptoms, and this advice should be taken in consideration mostly by men over forty, contact immediately your personal doctor because the prostate cancer has no early symptoms so there is a possibility that the existing cancer already started to spread. If the screening tests gave a good result, the prevention measures should not be forgotten and the practice of a daily physical exercise is found in this category.

The prostate cancer is one type of cancer affecting only the male specific organ, in this case the prostate, found in the reproductive system. Although there are many other diseases or disorders such as the prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia, the benign prostatic hyperplasia or prostatitis which may affect the prostate organ, only when the tumor is malignant the cancer will develop. This tumor, in the first stage, is organ confined but after four years it could double its size, becoming locally advanced and eventually metastatic. It is recommended for the patient to start immediately a treatment. Since there are no early symptoms to indicate the existence of the cancerous cells, for men over forty or more doctors recommend the screening tests, and only if the results are somewhat abnormal, the prostate biopsy will offer some better or clearer results for a correct diagnose.
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Usually treatments are prescribed depending on some factors such as the person’s age, the personal preferences of the patient or the stage of the cancer. This is one of the reasons why the staging process is so important. The patient will respond well to a treatment only if the tumor is not too far advanced. For example, prostatectomy doesn’t present any benefic results if the cancer reached the other surrounding organs of the prostate such as the urethra or the bladder. In some cases the original tumor is not even found in the prostate gland, like in the case of the transitional cell carcinoma which is a rare type of cancer.

It would probably be better to avoid or to prevent this disease as much as possible by always staying informed about it. Some of the prostate cancer causes are inherited, like the genes, some we can not get rid of even if we want to, like race and we surely know that we can not stop the cruel aging process. As I’ve stated above, there are no early symptoms to help us detect the existence of the prostate cancer, but its effects are noticeable once the tumor starts spreading and the patient starts following a treatment. There are two methods of treatment: the conventional or medical treatment, used entirely by doctors and the alternative treatment or Complementary and Alternative Medicines Treatments (CAM) including therapies such as: herbal therapy, hydrotherapy, homeopathy, magnetic fields therapy and exercises for relaxation. The herbal therapy is the most popular alternative treatment method, but up until now, no food combination or a particular category of foods had the result of curing this disease nor be blamed for its apparition or recurrence.



Metastatic cancer will affect the vertebrae, the pelvis, the ribs and the important internal organs and in the unfortunate case when the patient doesn’t respond well to the prescribed treatment this disease will eventually lead to death. The conventional treatments can have some serious after effects and I shall give just some small examples. The radiation therapy could be regarded as one of the most popular conventional treatment procedures patients usually opt for but its common side effects are impotence and incontinence, constipation, diarrhea, rectal bleeding. Doctors also recommend a safe sex after this procedure because sometimes the radioactive seeds implanted in the gland could migrate to other regions surrounding the gland. The most common treatment procedure is surgery or prostatectomy, but this operation has as well, some serious after effects and as a survey had demonstrated one per cent among men with ages between sixty five and sixty nine die because of local bleeding when this treatment procedure is done, while in four point five per cent of the cases the patients will report incontinence and in almost thirty six per cent of the cases, impotence. The risk of death as a side effect is not associated only with surgery. The androgen deprivation therapy or the hormone therapy can increase the risk of developing cardiovascular diseases which could eventually lead to death. This treatment therapy is a rather new one so the after effects are still being studied by the medical community but it is known the fact that when the body is deprived of testosterone, after effects such as impotence or breast enlargement are not rare. Injecting chemical substances into the body, as chemotherapy does, can increase the number of after effects which may affect the good functioning of the organism. The rest of the treatments also present some after effects but doctors will know better how to explain in great details a treatment method.

“Cancer” is the term used in defining the abnormal condition of the rapid and uncontrollable growth of the body cells and the apparition of the cancerous cells.

The prostate cancer is one type of cancer affecting the prostate gland, found only in the male reproductive system; this organ is located near the rectum, below the bladder, it surrounds the urethra and is responsible with the making of the seminal fluid.

Without any early symptoms, the recently formed tumor can only be discovered with the help of the recommended screening tests and if the existence of the tumor is confirmed but it is left untreated then the cancerous cells tend to multiply abnormally and the cancer will eventually spread to the surrounding areas of the prostate as the rectum, bones, lymph nodes in the groin area or the seminal vesicle; this is the stage known as the metastatic cancer, when the cancerous prostate cells are being transported through the bloodstream and the lymphatic system to other internal regions of the body where they grow other tumors.

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Usually the results of the treatments may vary according to how far spread is the cancer in the organism and this spreading process could be done by invading the neighboring tissues, spreading through the lymph vessels and lymph nodes or by traveling through the bloodstream to far away tissues.

With the Gleason scale or the staging process, the doctors will determine how advanced is your cancer, the tumor usually being organ-confined, locally advanced or metastatic, the advanced form of prostate cancer.

In this stage, the symptoms tend to appear and their aggressiveness will most likely affect the peaceful life of the patient; the most common prostate cancer symptoms are frequent urination or weak urine stream, burning or pain while urinating, blood in urine or semen, painful ejaculation, back pains, stiffness, ache; in the its advanced forms the cancer may cause bone pain, it could also spread fast to the lungs and liver causing coughing and chest pains, yellow skin and pain in the abdomen. If the spinal cord is affected by the prostate cancer it can cause a compression of the spine, resulting in weakness or fecal and urinary incontinence.

Treatments are sure available but unfortunately the results are less effective if the prostate cancer is metastatic. Just to give a small example: surgery, commonly known as prostatectomy, usually has little worth in treating the advanced forms of prostate cancer if the cancerous cells already reached the surrounding areas of the prostate gland.

I shall also enlist the other therapy forms used as treatments to prevent the growth of the tumor or to increase the life expectancies for those diagnosed with metastatic cancer: radiation therapy, done by damaging the DNA of the cancerous cells with implanted radioactive seeds or an external beam radiation, cryotherapy or the freezing of the prostate, chemotherapy, hormone therapy also known as androgen deprivation therapy, limiting the release of the testosterone in the organism.

There is also a procedure known as watchful waiting or expectant management defined as the monitoring of the evolution of the prostate cancer without prescribing any treatment to it and based only on maintaining a strict nutritional diet.

The metastatic cancer is something to be feared of because it is a rough way of showing just how vulnerable is the human body and how little does the medical community know about it and the way it’s functioning.

The keyword to avoid this rough disease is prevention and to always seek for a doctor’s counseling.

The prostate cancer is a common type of cancer affecting a serious number of men from all over the world.

Its early symptoms don’t exist, so the best medical advice to detect the prostate cancer at an early stage is to regularly have screening tests.

The most common manifestations of a prostate disorder are frequent and painful urination, problems of sexual function or blood found in the urine.

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If we talk about an advanced stage we encounter symptoms such as weakness in the legs, fecal an urinary incontinence, bone pain; if the cancer had spread to the lungs and liver it will cause breathing problems, chest and abdomen pains; if the spinal cord is affected it can cause the compression of the spine. If we are talking about metastatic cancer the most affected parts of the body will be the pelvis, ribs and vertebrae.

An early diagnosis of the exact disorder which affects the prostate can be obtained by using the screening procedure, done on a regular basis, the results being either normal when cancerous cells are not detected and abnormal, suggesting cancer.

Screening tests include two procedures: the digital rectal exam or DRE, when the doctor searches for hardness or lumps on the surface of the prostate gland by inserting a gloved finger into the rectum and the prostate specific antigen blood tests or PSA using as an indicator for the spreading of the cancer the prostate-specific antigen.

If the PSA test result indicates under four nanograms per milliliter of blood then it is considered as a normal result, the result between four and ten is at the borderline, depending on the patients age, genetic inheritance, symptoms and even race, a result higher than ten is abnormal, as also if the values are between thirty and forty which definitely indicate the existence of a prostate cancer.

In this last case the doctor has to inquire further medical investigations to reach for an exact diagnosis. A biopsy is the best procedure used in this case and is described as the withdrawing of one or two small pieces of the prostate tissue, using a needle trans-rectally, all this is done with the guidance of ultrasound images of the prostate area.

Biopsies can also be performed near the lymph nodes, the urinary bladder or the rectum. If the cancer has spread to the bones, radionuclide bone scans can confirm that, if we are talking about affected surrounding organs coaxial tomography or CAT scans and magnetic resonance imaging or MRIs can tell how much the cancer has spread in these areas.

If cancer is diagnosed, a pathologist uses the Gleason scale to classify the stages of the cancer: scores of two to four indicate a slow growing tumor, scores of five to six indicate an intermediate aggressiveness of the tumor while scores from seven to ten indicate the rapid growth of the cancerous tumor.

There is also the staging process which indicates how spread is the disease, and there are usually four stages: stage I, stage II, stage III and stage IV.

The next step is to start treating this disease under the guidance of a doctor and to start caring about what foods you consume. For that a doctor’s advices are imperative.

As the name goes, the prostate cancer is a common men’s disease which often appears once the cancer cells form and begin to spread in the area of the prostate gland.

It is the second most frequent form of cancer, affecting men from all over the world.
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If detected in early stages, the prostate cancer can be treatable and luckily even advanced forms of prostate cancer usually have a treatment. There are two known treatment procedures: the conventional one, meaning surgery, chemotherapy and radiation therapy, and an alternative method, which includes homeopathy, herbal therapy and even massages.

As a paradox, the early symptoms and signs of this sickness are not early at all. In fact they usually appear much later, when cancer begins to grow or spread in the prostate organ. This is precisely the reason why doctors recommend to all middle aged men to perform a screening, which is the best known procedure to detect early stages of cancer.


Some other common procedures for detecting cancer in absence of symptoms are the digital rectal exam or DRE and the prostate specific antigen blood tests or PSA. In the DRE test a doctor usually inserts a gloved finger into the rectum to feel the size of the prostate. The last one is used as an indicator to see how far cancer has spread apart from the gland.

From the age of forty onwards men are more exposed to this form of cancer and usually only after they experience an irritating pain they tend so seek for medical advice.

It is important not to frighten yourself with information gathered from all sorts of unspecialized media and stay calm until you get an expert's advice.

Some symptoms of prostate cancer are similar to another form of prostate disorders and diseases like the benign prostatic hypertrophy.


Here is a short list of general known prostate cancer symptoms: frequent urination or weak urine stream, burning or pain while urinating, blood in urine or semen, painful ejaculation, back pains, stiffness, ache. When we talk about advanced cancer, bone pain is the most common of all, the cancer spreading fast to the lungs and liver causing coughing and chest pains, yellow-ish skin and pain in the abdomen. If the spinal cord is affected by the prostate cancer it can cause a compression of the spine, resulting in weakness or fecal and urinary incontinence.

Once diagnosed, the doctor will explain the best medical procedure to help alleviate future pains. Seek for as many advices and suggestions as possible and only after that try to make up your mind. Choose wisely and I reinstate the advice to not get frightened because as long as this illness has a treatment you still get plenty of chances to live!