Whats Prostate Cancer Screening and Diagnosis

Due to the absence of symptoms in early stage disease, prostate cancer may not be detectable by the patient early enough to save his life; due to the fact that prostate cancer is not curable in later stages, it is critical that the disease is detected early, or else it would advance, and then the man’s life would be reasonably in danger.

To that end, the American Cancer Society has instituted a number of prostate cancer screening programs that will aid in detecting the disease early enough to make a difference. In addition, they have urged that men approaching middle age should start to go for regular medical checkups at least once a year. The timing for this follows the fact that prostate cancer is not common among men younger than 45 years old, and its incidence steadily rises from 50 years of age.

The screening programs for prostate cancer generally begin with the DRE test – direct rectal examination. During this procedure, the doctor inserts a gloved finger into the rectum of the would-be patient and feels the organ in question for any anomalies such as a distortion, a swelling, or something of that nature.

It is an inconclusive test, but if the physician feels the need for it, he can order another test – the PSA test – to determine if indeed his suspicions are right. Even if the DRE test was negative, the PSA test being a step further up would certainly provide more information.

All men have a certain amount of prostate specific antigens in their blood, but if they are in good prostate health, the level is never up to 4.0ng/ml in the blood. Anything at that level or more is cause for concern, although it could mean that the man suffer from something else besides prostate cancer. Extracting some blood to be examined in the lab should provide the necessary information.

A lot does ride on the intuition of the oncologist or urologist in charge of the procedure, and on the paranoia of the man undergoing the screening. Even though both the DRE and PSA tests do not point directly to prostate cancer, either party may decide that a prostate biopsy is necessary.

During the biopsy a special needle is inserted into the organ the same way a DRE test is done, and tissue samples are extracted from it to be examined under a microscope in the laboratory. More than just telling that the man has prostate cancer (or not), the biopsy provides further critical information about the disease such as the Gleason numbers and the Gleason score, which more or less provide the first basic knowledge about the stage of the disease.

Prostrate Cancer PSA Test – It’s Not Always What They Say

Somebody stumbling across any literature – or even a conversation – on prostate cancer is sure to hear the term ‘PSA’ sooner than later. It’s because the prostate specific antigen (PSA) has become one of the standards for determining if a man has prostate cancer.

But PSA Test Can Be Inaccurate

But interestingly, there are too many things that are uncertain about the results obtained from a PSA test. For one, the fact that a man has a higher PSA count than is proper does not imply that he has prostate cancer, and the fact that a man has prostate cancer does not imply that his PSA levels will rise.

There are certain forms of prostate cancer, as a matter of fact, that specifically do not cause a rise in the level of prostate specific antigens in the blood of the patient while they are advancing. A small cell sarcoma is a brilliant example of this, one manifestation of the disease that is so difficult to catch that it is often quite advanced before that is done. Waiting to see a raised PSA count would certainly be a problem with something like that.

So why then is the PSA still so important?

Screening for prostate cancer is by no means a walk in the park, and the most definitive assurance of a diagnosis is rather invasive because of the poking of the organ by a needle. In order to lower expense and discomfort to the patient, other tests have to be conducted to see if the biopsy of the prostate is indeed called for.

Several other diseases cause a spike PSA count in the blood – and could raise it over the critical 4.0ng/ml that depicts if the patient might be in trouble or not. If this is the case, then the biopsy is justified; if it does not happen however, then the doctor may decide not to go ahead with the efforts to diagnoses the disease.

Once the patient has been confirmed to have prostate cancer, though, the PSA count certainly becomes important because it may now be used as some kind of barometer to determine the seriousness of the disease – it’s aggression and the level of its advancements – along with the results gotten from the biopsy (the Gleason score) and other tests that are generally conducted afterward, which include MRI scans, computer tomography (CT) scans, and ribonucleic bone scans.

During treatment, the PSA level of the patient is thus monitored for any sudden or drastic changes; even though it may mean nothing, at least it will help determine if more needs be done. In the meantime, researchers are looking for other less invasive yet more definitive ways to diagnose the disease.

Just recently we discovered what could be a more effective PSA Testing. We wrote an article about it. Click here to read about it.

Prostrate Cancer Sign and Symptoms – What Many Might Now Know

Prostate cancer signs typically don’t appear in the early stages disease because of the slow growing nature of the adenocarcinoma. The only way then to catch the disease early is to do the workup for an elevated PSA during a routine checkup of the patient. When the symptoms do appear though, they are often similar to those of diseases that affect the prostate such as benign prostatic hypertrophy (BPH).

One of the most common of these symptoms is frequent urination, which mostly increased at night; it is often accompanied with a noted difficulty in starting a stream of urine, and also a noted difficulty in maintaining a steady stream of urine while it is up. Blood in the urine is common at the very least, and painful urination is as well. There may also be certain notable problems with sexual function and performance, especially difficulty achieving an erection and/or painful ejaculation.

Prostate cancer is associated with urinary dysfunction because of the location of the prostate gland. The organ surrounds the prostatic urethra in such a manner that changes within the gland directly affect the patient’s urinary function. Also as a result of the fact that the vas deferens deposits seminal fluid into the prostatic urethra, and secretions from the prostate gland itself are included in semen content. This leads the condition thence to cause the sexual problems.

There are certain forms of cancer that beat the best screening and diagnostic tests because of their aggressive nature. Small cell sarcomas, for instance, never cause an enlarged prostate nor a spike in the PSA blood level of the patient. This may result in the patient not detecting the disease until it is quite advanced and even more deadly.

This advanced prostate cancer typically spreads to other parts of the body, and naturally this causes other additional symptoms. Even the adenocarcinoma, if it gets a chance to advance that far will cause the same symptoms due to bone metastasis of the disease – the most common, bone pain. The bone pain is often in the lower back region, the chest, the hips, and the upper parts of the thigh. These are signals that the cancer has spread to the bones of the spine, pelvis, ribs, and the proximal part of the femur.

Late stage advanced prostate cancer is even worse still. Tumor metastasis can cause the cancerous cells to be incident in the spine as well. This also gets to compress the spinal cord and result in further complications like leg weakness and incontinence. It has been known to lead to eventual paralysis.

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