The staging process, used only after the prostate cancer is diagnosed, indicates just how far spread is the tumor in the organism. Cancer is defined as an abnormal condition when the normal cells know a rapid and uncontrollable growth while the cancerous cells tend to appear in great numbers and outlive the normal ones. If these malignant cells have reached and entered the bloodstream or the lymph vessels, the tumor will spread to other surrounding organs, giving birth to other small tumors when they reach that certain area of the internal body. The screening tests and the prostate biopsy will help doctors in diagnosing this type of cancer and prescribe the correct treatment. If cancer is discovered but the patient chooses not to treat it, it is very possible that this disease will eventually advance and become metastasized.

In fact, metastatic cancer develops only when the cancerous prostate cells are transported through the lymphatic system or bloodstream to other internal regions of the body where they grow other tumors; the tumor, in the first stage, is organ-confined and usually in this stage the patient doesn’t present any early symptoms; only after its spreading the cancer will become noticeable. According to the TNM staging system, the TNM abbreviation comes from tumor, nodes and metastatic, or the Whitmore-Jewett staging system, there are four stages into which the cancer can be categorized. Obviously, the last stage known as stage IV or D is the stage of the metastatic cancer. Usually patients respond well to treatments even in this end stage, but unfortunately there is no curing possibility because the tumor is just too advanced. Treatments will only help alleviate the pains and increase the life expectancies, but that is all. When the diseased person opts for a treatment such as surgery, the side effects can not be avoided.

For example, surgery or prostatectomy, is a procedure defined as the complete removal of the prostate gland. If the tumor is organ-confined the surgery may have some rather good results but if the tumor began its spreading, surgery will only increase the risk of dying and according to a survey, one per cent among men with ages between sixty five and sixty nine die because of local bleeding when this treatment procedure is done. The risk of death as a side effect is not related only to 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 side effects are still being studied by the medical community. As I’ve mentioned before the end stage is the fourth stage or stage D, but this stages are divided into other substages such as: substage D0, when the cancer began its spreading but the medical examinations or the imaging tests show otherwise; in substage D1 the cancer is in the lymph nodes; in substage D2 the tumor has spread to the bones and the surrounding organs of the prostate; in stage D3, if the patient follows the right treatment there is a possibility to stop the spreading of the cancer, maintaining it similar as in substage D2.

If the cancer is left untreated, the tumor would double its size once every four years while the patient will experience some painful symptoms such as: frequent urination or weak urine stream, you may find blood in the urine or the semen or feel burning or irritating pains while urinating, you may also experience a painful ejaculation, back pains, stiffness or ache; if it is metastatic, the cancer may cause bone pain, having the predilection to affect first the bone structures, it could also spread fast to the lungs and liver causing coughing, pain in the abdomen, yellow skin and chest pains. The prostate cancer can cause the compression of the spine, the results being muscle weakness, leg pains or incontinence, fecal or urinary or both. 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. Try to avoid as much as possible this terrible disease by always staying informed about it.