Prostate cancer is a very common affliction, encountered especially in men aged over 50. The odds of prostate cancer occurrence grow with age, and it is not uncommon for the condition to develop, especially if there is a history of prostate cancer or ovarian cancer in the patient’s family. It is said that if men lived to be 140, they would all have prostate cancer, even if not all cases would show clinical symptoms.



Research has shown, as I have said, that genetic predisposition is relevant in the incidence of prostate cancer. This means that you are more likely to develop prostate cancer if your father, grandfather or brother had or has prostate cancer.



Hormonal influence is an archenemy of prostate cancer. Eunuchs do not develop prostate cancer. Under the influence of androgens (for example testosterone) the prostate cancer grows, and under the influence of feminine hormones the prostate decreases in size. Castration makes the prostatic tumor go into regression.

The diet and factors in the environment also have relevance in the occurrence, development or fight against prostate cancer. It is believed that mostly vegetal foods, rich in vitamins A and C, have a protective effect, while foods that are rich in fat, which alters the cholesterol and steroidal metabolism, favor the occurrence of prostate cancer. Prostate cancer is not believed to occur from infections. Infectious factors, viral or microbes, are only partially accepted, and there is a bit of controversy among scientists in acknowledging viruses ad microbes as elements that cause prostate cancer to occur and or develop.

Prostate cancer of the bone means that the cancer has reached bone metastasis. Metastasis is the process where the tumor (abnormal agglomeration of cells that divide uncontrollably) starts spreading diseased cells throughout the body, infecting other, neighboring, organs and cells. The cells spread throughout the body latch on to blood vessels and travel to other organs and to the bones. Reaching the other organs, the diseased cells “set up camp” and start developing again. When the diseased cell coming from a prostate cancer tumor reaches a bone and starts developing on that bone, the situation is called bone metastasis, or, as you might call it, prostate cancer of the bone.

Symptoms usually occur in advanced local cancer, and are shown through problems in urination. The prostate surrounds the urethra, and when a tumor develops, it might start putting pressure on the urethra or even block it all together. Symptoms of prostate cancer include: often urination, dysuria, false incontinence through over filing in the bladder distension, acute retention of urine, blood in the urine, renal insufficiency, perineal pain, blood in the sperm, lymphedema of the lower limbs.



Another category of symptoms are those based to metastasis: pain in the bones, neurological phenomena, pathological bone fractures, asthenia, decreases in weight and signs of chronic renal insufficiency. Diagnosis of prostate cancer can be reached using an ultrasonic scan, a computerized tomography scan, nuclear magnetic resonance, radiological examinations, bone scintigraphy, analysis of the prostatic specific antigen and prostate biopsy.