Cancer is seen as an abnormal medical condition having as main causes some factors such as the genetic inheritance, because cancer can be inherited by the members of the same family, the aging process, the working environment, alimentation, excessive alcohol drinking and smoking or even race.

The causes mentioned above allow the multiplication and the fast spreading of the cancer cells, first in the infected organ and only after in the entire body. The normal apoptotic reaction and the mitosis fail to function well and because of that the primary tumor slowly increases in size and eventually reaches outside the organ confined site. With these features we can also describe the cancer that affects the male specific gland responsible with the making of the seminal fluid, the prostate.



Usually, the spreading process is done by invading the surrounding areas of the prostate, in the first stages the cancer becoming locally advanced and without any proper treatment the cancer will soon become metastatic; that basically means that the cancer cells started their travel to other far regions of the organism through the bloodstream and the lymph system and made possible the apparition of other small, secondary malignant tumors which can infect vital organs such as the lungs or brain.

Each cancer is unique and different patients may report different symptoms in different stages in different periods of time; the prostate cancer has no early signs to make it noticeable in its first stages but there are some common reported symptoms which tend to appear soon after starting its spreading. If any unusual symptoms are noticed without any specific and unidentified cause then the screening tests are recommended. No matter how old this approach of identifying the prostate cancer in its early stages may be the screening tests still remain popular.

The screening includes the digital rectal examination done by a medical specialist that determines any abnormality with the size of the prostate gland by inserting a gloved finger into the rectum and palpating the presumably infected organ; the prostate specific antigen blood test indicates the levels of the prostate specific antigen protein which in normal circumstances should be low. The results of these tests have to be interpreted by doctors; they will also be responsible for the decision to continue with the medical investigations or not.

With the help of the prostate biopsy the future diagnose will be as accurate as it can be, especially if this method of detection is complemented by newer ones such as the nomogram or the prostate mapping.



If cancer is detected the main problem will be to answer the question of how long do men with advanced prostate cancer get to live. First, the characteristics of the prostate cancer will be determined with the grading and staging systems such as the Gleason scale and the TNM (tumor, nodes and metastatic) staging system or its alternative, the Whitmore-Jewett system.

Usually the higher a score is the more aggressive a cancer can get so it is very important to make an accurate prognosis about the outcome of the prostate cancer and determine approximately how long men could live with an advance prostate cancer.

Usually the prognosis has two results: the patient will respond well to the treatment or the prescribed treatment will prove ineffective in stopping or even delaying the spreading of the tumor. The prognosis is usually challenging just because its results are relative,

depending very much on the uniqueness of each cancer but the mortality charts offer some answers about the chances of survival and for how long a patient gets to live if he is diagnosed with an advanced prostate cancer.

Even after the five year survival rate a possibility of cancer recurrence will always remain, sometimes coming back in more aggressive forms such as the metastases or two or more metastatic tumors, affecting gravely the bone system and other important organs.

To prolong the chances of survival or living for men with advanced prostate cancer the recommended treatments are the radiotherapy, brachytherapy or proton beam therapy, the androgen deprivation therapy or the hormone therapy and chemotherapy, complemented by the use of strong drugs to increase the treatment’s effectiveness.

After fifteen years the survival rates tend to stabilize and the life expectancies can increase even if the cancer is locally advanced but for the metastatic cancer, the average time of survival is one to three years after the initial diagnose and sometimes the patient will die because of some other health complications.