It is not uncommon to have a patient complain of pain in the lower back, pelvis, or upper thighs, an occurrence which generally is an indication that the prostate cancer isn’t any longer a prostate cancer, but metastatic disease cells that has spread to the ribs, pelvis, and other bones throughout the body.

The problem with the symptoms of prostate cancer is that they all actually could have other causes. For instance, an infection or prostate enlargement (BPH – benign prostate hypertrophy), may be the reason why urination is difficult and frequent and more painful; while regular bone pain may be caused by an injury or something. Considering that prostate enlargement is a natural result of the aging process, this is certainly not too farfetched. Therefore waiting for or diagnosing by symptoms may be a critical error.

Again, there are no early symptoms for prostate cancer, yet that is the time when the disease is most curable. Certainly it becomes most evident that actions have to be taken in order to detect and diagnose the disease early, so that early treatment can be accorded. To this end, most doctors perform screening tests during regular physical exams so as to identify prostate cancer early. These screening (diagnostic) tests include a digital rectal examination (DRE) and a PSA (prostate specific antigen) test.

During the DRE, the physician slips a gloved finger into the rectum to feel the size, shape, and firmness of the prostate; a prostate cancer will cause a nodule or some other prostate irregularity to be felt in this manner. The PSA test measures the level of the protein or enzyme in the blood of the patient. Men all have PSA in their blood, but prostate cancer cells overproduce it. There is cause for alarm when the PSA level hovers above 4.0ng/ml, although it does not conclude that there is prostate cancer. Other infections and disorders of the prostate often cause PSA spikes. Even certain drugs do as well.

Usually, only if the other tests warrant it is a biopsy of the prostate gland done to confirm or refute the prostate cancer diagnosis. The biopsy requires that a needle is inserted through the wall of the rectum to extract a tissue sample from the prostate; examined under a microscope for the presence of cancer cells, the biopsy will tell if the patient has prostate cancer or not.

Shall we begin with green tea? Due to its polyphenol content, it is apparent now that green tea may be protective against prostate cancer. There have been quite a number of comprehensive clinical studies into the potential of green tea as a prostate cancer treatment, but even the most comprehensive of them suggests that it has no protective effect.

One study however, that looked into the derivatives of green tea, did demonstrate some promising prostate cancer prevention qualities in the substance, particularly for patients at high risk for the disease. Today it is now believed that oral infusion of green tea polyphenols may inhibit the development, progression, and metastasis of prostate cancer ? it did so in mouse specimens.

Capsaicin – this is a colorless chemical compound that is found in hot peppers. For long it has been known to have medicinal uses although its application in prostate cancer treatment was not quite clear. That changed recently when it was found that this chili pepper ingredient caused cell apoptosis in aggressive advanced stage prostate cancer. This would mean a major breakthrough if the currently ongoing clinical tests confirm the efficacy of the substance because advanced prostate cancer is thought to be incurable generally.

Lycopene is a powerful antioxidant of the carotenoid group that is found chiefly in tomatoes and used extensively in many antioxidant dietary supplements. As an antioxidant, it neutralizes the dangerous action of free radicals in the body, which may precursor prostate cancer by making cells more vulnerable to cancer causing agents. There have been arguments for and against its efficacy, but most leanings appear to be toward using it in prostate cancer treatment.

The saw palmetto is also a powerful antioxidant, as is pomegranate juice and wheatgrass. As a matter of fact the medical community is generally aware of their usefulness as prostate cancer prevention measures, although they are not approved for such in the United States. So what? They are sold as food supplements for all who care to reach out for them.

It is therefore reasonable to consider the possibility that prostate cancer is a disease that quietly and gently builds during the younger years, and culminates at time that one hits old age. To that end, prevention should begin from the times when one is still young – and this is where the challenge lies. Because so little is known or understood about prostate cancer even by the medical community, they generally have limited knowledge concerning how to prevent prostate cancer, save advice on diets and lifestyle. Fortunately, there are a few herbal remedies work precisely in this regard.

Preventing prostate cancer by herbal medications is actually quite easy once on knows what herbs to be on the lookout for – and that is not so difficult to come about either. For instance, most men already are aware of the fact that green tea is medicinal; the only added knowledge is then that it is also considered to be medicinal against prostate cancer, although as yet medical science has only been able to establish that green tea helps to treat an enlarged prostate.

But so what? For all that is understood of the disease, prostate cancer could very well be prostate enlargement gone wrong! And it does not take a genius to be able to mix up a green tea brew, every morning, does it?

It is possible that a lot of people are unaware that men who have a diet rich in lycopene, a type of antioxidant, have a reduced chance of getting prostate cancer; if they knew it they certainly would consume a lot more of tomatoes and red pigmented fruits and vegetables like watermelon and pink grapefruit because that’s where lycopene comes from. Sure, it is no guarantee against the disease, but what harm is done.

Another herbal remedy that is sure to blow most people out of the water is pepper. That’s right; good old red hot chili. The spice/vegetable/fruit is known to contain an ingredient called capsaicin that is believed even now to work as well (if not better) than pomegranate juice in the treatment of prostate cancer. Not only is it effective in preventing the disease, it also attacks advanced stage prostate cancer and cause the tumor cells to commit apoptosis. Certainly folks who eat more of it daily ought to be able to keep the disease at bay.

Well, that’s herbs in the treatment and prevention of prostate cancer.

Finasteride is used both to treat BPH – benign prostatic hyperplasia ? (in low doses), and for intervention with prostate cancer in higher doses. In May 2008, it was confirmed by a certain study that finasteride actually reduces the rate of occurrence of prostate cancer by as much as 30%. Adding that to the fact that it is also used in the treatment of male pattern baldness (androgenetic alopecia), one can suddenly see that the product has many health benefits.

Flutamide is also an antiandrogen, which is nonsteroidal in action and can be administered orally. It is a drug that is used to treat prostate cancer by competing with testosterone and DHT for binding to androgen receptors in the prostate gland. In this manner, flutamide prevents the two hormones from stimulating prostate cancer cells to grow, thence causing the carcinoma to shrink. Flutamide does have side effects that have resulted in improvements being made on the drug and it being rereleased as bicalutamide, due to a better side-effect profile.

When an experiment was carried out to determine which had better merits between a combined low-dose flutamide and finasteride therapy for recurrent prostate cancer, and a simple low-dose flutamide monotherapy, it was discovered that the “therapeutic value of low-dose flutamide alone or combined with finasteride as first-line agents in a possible graduated approach for treating PSA-only recurrent prostate cancer.”

Stated simply, this translates into the fact that there were no clear results observed. In any case, this was a comparative analysis of two phase II trials of the therapeutic concept with the intention of a long-term follow-up. There were some “unwanted metabolic effects” that were observed during the tests which are generally associated with traditional hormonal agents, but which also determined that phase III trials comparing both regimens with current therapies will be warranted.

The drugs work, but using them together has not been proven yet to be a better therapeutic approach than using then individually.

Something does need to be done once one feels the symptoms of prostate cancer, regardless of the fact that they may be coming in late. After all, even advanced stage metastatic prostate cancer can be treated, even if not cured. Prostate cancer is generally a slowly progressing disease so that the lack of symptoms in its initial stages is understandable, though not acceptable.

The warning signs that eventually present themselves imply that the cancer is no longer sequestered in the prostate gland, but beginning to spread. They include difficult or painful urination as well as urination that appears to get more frequent at night; blood in the urine or semen is common; and pain in the lower back, pelvis, or upper thighs tend to follow up.

This last set of signs and symptoms of prostate cancer may signal that the cancerous cells have spread to the ribs, pelvis, and other bones. It is not uncommon to have them be symptoms of other disease and infections that may affect the prostate, though, because they tend to follow prostate enlargement as well, which generally occurs in aging men as what some might refer to as a natural result of the aging process.

Why these specific symptoms?

The prostate gland surrounds the prostatic urethra, therefore the changes that occur within the gland, perhaps due to disease or some other phenomena, therefore directly affect urinary function.

In addition, as a result of the vas deferens deposits seminal fluid into the urethra, and because secretions from the prostate gland itself are included in semen content, the prostatic adenocarcinoma may therefore also cause the problems with sexual function and performance ? hence difficulty achieving erection and/or painful ejaculation.

And like most other forms of cancer, prostate cancer grows and spreads. Advanced stage disease spreads to other parts of the body and generally causes the additional symptoms of bone pain in the bones of the spine, pelvis or ribs, and sometimes also in the other bones like the femur, skull, feet, etc. In fact, a metastatic tumor in the spine can compress the spinal cord enough to cause leg weakness and urinary and fecal incontinence.

But these are just the disease being nice; advanced prostate cancer typically spreads to other parts of the body and causes additional symptoms. Of these symptoms, the most common symptom is bone pain, which is frequently found in the bones of the spinal columns, the pelvis, or the ribs; it may also spread into other bones, such as the femur, usually to the proximal part of the bone. And in the end stages prostate cancer can metastasize into the spine and begin to compress the spinal cord. This would cause characteristic leg weakness and urinary and fecal incontinence.

Early prostate cancer can be cured; late stage disease (or advanced prostate cancer) cannot. The bone pain is due to metastatic tumors starting to grow on the bones as they are incident from the bloodstream. They cause regions higher bone concentration to develop, resulting in hot spots; and regions of lower bone concentrations causing cold spots. Together they make the bone fragile or brittle, and vulnerable to spontaneous fractures.

Treating the end stages of prostate cancer can be a challenge depending on how aggressive the cancer is. Generally though, since the specialists are by and large not trying to cure the disease, their aim would be merely to provide palliation, a situation in which treatment focuses on extending life and relieving the symptoms of metastatic disease.

In order to reduce PSA levels and tumor size in aggressive advanced-stage prostate cancer, abiraterone acetate may be the best choice to slow disease progression and postpone symptoms, chemotherapy may be offered; and to delay the fractures or the need for radiotherapy, bisphosphonates are the best ports of call. This is especially true for patients with hormone-refractory metastatic prostate cancer.

As for the bone pain, it may get no better than morphine or other opioid pain relievers can provide it; otherwise, radioisotopes can be injected into the patient to aim at bone metastases and help relieve pain. Ultimately, prolonged patient survival times, reduced pain and improved quality of life are the goals.

The most common symptom of advanced prostate cancer is bone pain. This bone pain is due to the metastasis of the disease into the skeletal system all across the body, with preferred sites in the vertebrae, pelvis and ribs. Another commonly affected bone in the body by advanced metastatic prostate cancer is the femur (thigh bone), often in the proximal part of the bone. Further advances of the disease may cause the cells to deposit in the spine and begin to compress the spinal cord, leading to further complications like leg weakness and incontinence - both urinary and fecal.

The treatment of advanced prostate cancer, for the record, is merely for palliation and not for cure. Perhaps sometime in the future, when some miracle cancer cure is found, they would be able to treat and cure advanced stage prostate cancer, but that day is not today.

Today advanced prostate cancer cannot be cured. All they can do is slow down the progression of the disease with either or both of hormonal therapy and chemotherapy, provide pain relief with radiotherapy or opioid pain relievers, and find a way to prolong the life of the patient while also sustaining a reasonable quality of life.

The prognosis for advanced prostate cancer is about five to eight years, but a lot depends on how aggressive the cancer is, how advanced it is by the time of detection, and the patient’s general state of health, which goes quite a long way to help determine which treatments may be available to the patient. Men with early stage disease have a 93 percent survival rate at ten years, and a 77% at fifteen; and several of them (are hoped) will survive to the twenty year mark.

When it is late stage or advance prostate cancer like this, the prognosis drops sharply. Several doctors will not even give the patient further than three years to live unless the patient has already outlived that time span, at which point they might commence to extend the life expectancy of the man.

The problem with waiting for the symptoms is that they generally come when the cancer is quite advanced, and may no longer be curable. To that end the medical community has instituted a lot of improved screening programs, especially to help with people who are at increased risk of the disease.

Prostate cancer research is by no means a walk in the park, taking years (decades even) before the results begin to trickle in; and it’s the donations for prostate cancer that make the critical difference between success and failure.

You could start with the federal government, and other government parallels. Only a few years ago, President Bush signed the approval of 5 billion to be funneled research over a period of five years. It wasn’t specifically for prostate cancer, but that would at least shed some light on how money is made for the studies. The American Cancer Society also does its own bit, funding brilliant minds in the studies of various forms of cancer, and leading several in fact to Nobel prices on the long run.

But it is not all about the government and established institutions all over the country - you and I also need to be able to offer our own contributions to these studies that might save us or our loved ones some day. There may be those who think that they are safe from prostate cancer, but the truth is with an incidence rate of as much as 200,000 new diagnoses every year, and a death toll that pushes the 20,000 man mark, how can one be entirely certain that one’s life is not inexorably touched by this? One can’t.

On the Prostate Cancer Charity website, there is room for making a donation for anyone who is interested in offering it. Visit the website, fill the online form, and the rest of the system just plays itself out with you following the cues as they come; even you can do that.

Look all around you and I can bet that you’ll come across a few people with the silicone rubber bracelet’s on their wrists that say “Prostate Cancer Awareness.” It’s not new: the bracelets cell for just $10 but a good portion of the proceeds go to funding several of the many prostate cancer research facilities all over the country. If you were to buy one for yourself, and a couple for those you live with, you would have contributed to saving a few lives - perhaps even yours.

The Prostate Cancer Foundation also has a website that allows you to make a general donation if you want to, and you should. Making money for the expensive research really comes in no other way.

Prostate cancer is the ninth most common form of cancer in the world, the most common non skin cancer in the United States and Canada, and responsible for the second highest number of cancer deaths amongst American men. More than 200,000 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer each year, and close to thirty thousand men die from the disease within the same time span.

The rate of incidence or occurrence of prostate cancer varies by race and geographic region. For instance, the adenocarcinoma is more common in the United States than is most other countries of the world, with the lowest incidences in Asia, Africa and South America. However it turns out African American men are more likely to develop the cancer than people of any other racial group in North America.

The actual cause of prostate cancer is unclear, but the risk factors that appear to contribute to the occurrence of the disease are age, race, genetics, diet, lifestyle medications, and a number of other factors that may vary. The disease occurs more in men over 65 than in men under 45; it appears to be more common amongst certain races than in others; and a blood relative having been diagnosed with the disease once typically doubles the risk of a man being diagnosed with the disease as well.

Certain foods have been implicated as causal factors in the incidence of prostate cancer, such as red meat, high fat, and processed foods. Certain other foods, such as vegetables, vitamins, and polyunsaturated fatty acids, have been found conversely to aid in lowering the risk of the disease. Some medications likewise lower disease risk, e.g., anti-inflammatory drugs; while certain infections increase risk. And generally exercise, especially aerobic exercise, aids in maintaining overall health.

There are no symptoms in early stage prostate cancer, but as the disease progresses, indicators such as painful urination, increased urination at night, blood in urine, and blood in semen may appear. Advanced stages of the disease, when it is no longer curable would likely include a lot of bone pain all over the body, and perhaps incontinence.

It must be why there are two kinds of bone cancers - primary and secondary tumors. Primary bone tumors understandably are tumors that originate in the bone itself, which then may migrate (or metastasize) to other parts of the body; secondary tumors are metastatic cancers from other parts of the body that have come to make their abode on the bone.

It is rather difficult to detect bone cancer before it has spread to other parts of the body, at which point it is quite advanced. Generally it is a slowly growing mass that is not painful to touch but that may cause some discomfort for the patient.

Diagnosing the condition may require all of x-ray examinations to reveal structural changes; radionuclide bone scans to assess active bone formation; computerized axial tomography (CT or CAT) scans to demonstrate enlargement of the cortex of the bone; and arteriography, an x-ray procedure involving the use of dyes to identify affected arteries to help define the extent of the tumor.

However, if all else fail to confirm the disease, there is certainly still the biopsy of the bone, which is sure to show the abnormal cells that are producing unmineralized bone.

Bone cancer metastasis is often though the bloodstream to the lungs, but certainly other parts of the body may be affected as well. Prostate cancer metastasis on the other hand tends to begin with the regions closer to the prostate itself, once the disease starts to spread. The pelvic region is affected first, the lymphatic system next, and then the bones of the spine, the ribs, the thighs, and sometimes even the skull.

Diagnosing prostate cancer has been made relatively easy in recent times due to ever improving screening methods. Today, it is possible to detect prostate cancer before it has fully developed, and even cure the condition then. However, all of that changes when the cancer has spread dangerously to the bones. No longer curable, all that can be done at that time is to provide palliative prostate cancer care for the patient. Treating bone metastasis requires pain relief and anything to slow the progression of the cancer. Treating bone cancer generally requires chemotherapy and radiation, and saving the bone is only possible if metastasis has not occurred yet.