The organ known as the prostate is a gland with the size of a walnut, found only in the male reproductive system, storing and making the seminal fluid; its location is below the bladder, near the rectum and surrounding the urethra.



Niccolo Massa, a Venetian anatomist, made the first attempt to describe the prostate gland and the symptoms of the prostate disorders, in the late 1530’s, while illustrations of it, dating from the same period of time, are being attributed to Andreas Vesalius, a Flemish anatomist. Strangely enough, because of the lack of medical information and the short life expectancies, the prostate cancer was considered a rare disease and was not officially recognized until 1853.

We can’t talk about the early symptoms of the prostate cancer because they do not exist.

Still though, if the tumor began spreading, symptoms tend to appear shortly afterwards: frequent urination or weak urine stream, burning or pain while urinating, blood in urine or semen, painful ejaculation, back pains, stiffness, ache, frequent bone pain, pain in the abdomen, compression of the spine resulting in leg weakness or incontinence.

Recent studies concluded there are several causes standing behind the development of cancerous cells in the prostate: age, is the first and most important factor because usually after the age of forty men experience internal body changes, race and genetic background, cancer being an inherited disease, and the high diet in animal fats or junk food, alcohol and smoking, increasing the exposure of developing cancer.

Since we know that cancer is not the only disease affecting the prostate gland, screening testes are recommended for an early diagnosing. These 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.

Depending on the result of these screening tests, being either normal or abnormal, the doctor decides if further medical investigations are needed or not.

If the result is normal, consider yourself lucky for the moment, and come again to the hospital for some other screening tests as soon as it is recommended.

If the result is abnormal, a prostate biopsy will provide better and relevant results. This procedure is done by withdrawing of one or two small pieces of the prostate tissue, using a needle trans-rectally, under the guidance of ultrasound images of the prostate area.

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 prescribing a proper treatment; doctors recommend the conventional treatment, but the alternative treatment should not be ignored and be regarded as another available option. It all depends of how far has the tumor spread into the organism.

Into the conventional treatment list we include surgery, done by removing the malignant tumor or parts of infected tissues, 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.

The alternative type of treatment, known as Complementary and Alternative Medicines Treatments (CAM) involves homeopathy, herbal therapy, hydrotherapy, exercises for the relaxing of the mind and magnetic fields therapy.

There is another form of treatment, reclaimed by both conventional and alternative treatment and is known under the name of watchful waiting or expectant management, described as monitoring the evolution of the prostate cancer without prescribing any treatment to it and based only on maintaining a strict nutritional diet. This is a procedure recommended for elderly men since the cancer growth is rather slow, doubling once every four years.

The last and most nerve-wrecking step is to wait and see if the treatment you chose has an effect. It can be a painful wait but life is valuable and any means to prolong it are necessary.