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.

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.

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.

We just found an interesting news article that throws more light on a kind of more advanced PSA test that can detect prostate cancer better than the usual PSA tests.

As you may already know, the usual PSA tests usually throws false positives, which leads to even more biopsies and treatments that may not even be necessary.

This has cost many men lots of money as well as endless mental and psychological traumas. Hopefully not anymore, if the story about this new PSA Pro Test is to be believed.

Read this news article below:

WASHINGTON, D.C (Ivanhoe Newswire) –The PSA test is the only available FDA approved screening method to identify prostate cancer in men. But, the test has been controversial for years because it’s not always accurate – causing some men unnecessary biopsies and needless treatment. We’ll tell you about a better, more accurate test for prostate cancer.

When Dan Zenka learned he had prostate cancer, his doctor let him know how serious the diagnosis was.

“He indicated that mine was a more aggressive form or appeared to be a more aggressive form of prostate cancer,” Dan Zenka, Prostate cancer patient told Ivanhoe.

Dan knows a lot about prostate cancer, he’s senior vice president of communications at the Prostate Cancer Foundation. He’s well aware that one in six men will be diagnosed with the disease in their lifetime.

“I knew the chances were good that I might be hearing those very words someday myself,” Zenka said.

The PSA test is the most common way to screen for prostate cancer. But the test can result in a high number of false positives and false negatives – causing unnecessary treatments and missed diagnoses. Now, urologists say that a new test, called the pro PSA test, better detects aggressive cancer and reduces false positives.

“The pro PSA test is more accurate than anything that is currently available,” William Catalona, M.D., a urologist at Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine told Ivanhoe.

PSA or prostate specific antigen is found in the blood. High levels of PSA could indicate prostate cancer. The new test measures a more specific form of PSA in the blood.

“That specifically is a better marker for prostate cancer than the other forms of PSA that have been previously developed,” Dr. Catalona said.

The new test measures blood levels of three different types of PSAs. Combined with annual biopsies, or tissue samples, it was about 70 percent accurate in singling out the aggressive tumor. The pro PSA level is turning out to be a more valuable predictor for prostate cancer.

“It can give you a more accurate estimate of whether or not he has prostate cancer, and whether or not the prostate cancer is one of those that would be potentially life threatening,” Dr. Catalona added. Read more here:

We will now await when and whether this new PSA Pro method will be approved by the U.S Food and Drug Administration. They say it has already been approved in Europe, so that’s a good sign.

So, there you go - New More Effective PSA Test Method For Detecting Prostate Cancer!

Prostate cancer is however not the only disorder that may develop in the prostate. More common in fact is the disease called benign prostate hyperplasia, also known simply as prostate enlargement (or an enlarged prostate). This one occurs in up to 80 percent of men that make it to over 70 years old, and generally causes their prostate glands to grow up to seven or eight times their normal size.

The early signs of prostate problems are therefore the same symptoms that a man should look out for. For instance, he should be conscious of the fact that he is urinating more as he grows older. Although this is common enough in all aging men, when it is accompanied by pain in urination, there is likely a problem.

BPH can cause nighttime urination and a feeling or urgency to urinate, while also causing difficulty emptying the bladder and a weak urinary stream. These symptoms are warning signs that one will come across when dealing with advancing prostate cancer.

Other early signs that may indicate the coming of a prostate problem are pelvic pain, problems with urination, discomfort after ejaculation, and lower back pain. They may also include infection, swelling, pain, and difficulty in urinating; the penis may release bacterial fluid, and blood may appear in the urine. These are generally symptoms of prostatitis, which may be bacterial in nature, or nonbacterial. In some cases bacterial prostatitis may even cause severe infections throughout the body, producing a dangerously high fever.

It pays to pay attention to these warning signs because that may be what saves one’s life. An early diagnosis of the disease, whatever it is, is critical to treating it. It may not be prostate cancer, but one such infection is sufficient to increase the risk of prostate cancer several fold. And should the symptoms be those of prostate cancer, well, the sooner the treatment starts, the better.

But concerning prostate cancer, a man should get examined at least once a year in order to catch the disease before it spreads, instead of waiting for the Early Signs Of Prostate Problems.

The statistics in the above paragraph all pertain to prostate cancer, one of the most feared and well known diseases in the United States. These facts are made worse by the fact that the disease is not too easily detectable. There are no early symptoms, so that the condition could very well have gotten to advanced stages before it is diagnosed, at which time treating with the intent to cure could very well be a futile effort. Thankfully it is known that the disease is rare amongst men younger than 45 years of age and grows more common in the 60s.

As a result of the above, the American Cancer Society ACS recommends that men aged 50 years and older should seriously consider having annual screening tests to determine if they have the disease… in order to be able to catch it and get the best treatments. There is particular urgency for men who have a high risk for the disease – African American men and those who have a family history of prostate cancer. They are urged to talk to their doctors about starting annual screening tests at younger ages too.

These examinations and screening tests for prostate cancer are basically two in number:

1. The annual Digital Rectal Exam

and

2. The PSA test.

The digital rectal examination (DRE) requires that the doctor inserts a gloved finger into the rectum of the patient to feel the prostate gland. If the prostate has grown in size or changed in any way, the doctor will be able to tell this way. If there is nothing at all, the patient walks; but if the doctor suspects that they may be something, he advocates for a PSA test.

The male body produces an enzyme called the prostate specific antigen (PSA). There are constantly levels of this protein in the blood, but unless there is something wrong with the prostate, like an infection or disease. In such an instance, the blood level of the PSA markers rise above the 4.0ng/ml mark. During the PSA test, blood is drawn from the patient to be tested the laboratory. If the PSA level is above 4.0, there is cause for concern… except that it might not be prostate cancer at all. Other disorders can cause the PSA spike, so a biopsy may have to be conducted in order to confirm the diagnosis.

Understandably the annual screening with a PSA test is controversial because there are many false positives.  Sometimes an elevated PSA level occurs in men who do not have prostate cancer, leading to unnecessary additional procedures; but if it saves his life, the prostate cancer exams are totally worth it.

In prostate cancer, blood in urine may signify that the cancerous cells in the infected organ are starting to migrate into the bloodstream and migrate through it to other regions of the body. This is a stage of the disease that is difficult to treat but in which hope may not be entirely lost. Hormonal therapy can still slow the progression of the disease down sufficiently for it to be treated with a combination brachytherapy and external beam radiation treatment.

However blood in the urine is a common problem referred to generally in the medical community as hematuria, sometimes the sign of a serious problem in the urinary tract, and at other times not really a serious problem and requires no treatment. This is why one needs to blow an alarm upon observing the blood, but instead he should proves to a medical expert for a thorough evaluation. Once this has been carried out a qualified healthcare provider then the way forward would be clear enough.

A trace amount of blood in urine is actually normal because average men typically excrete close to a million red blood cells in a single the urine each day if he has a healthy urinary tract. This amount of urine cannot be seen physically, so really it is no cause for alarm. An abnormal amount of blood in the urine can be acute or chronic, which may occur just once or several times. If a man has prostate cancer, the pain that accompanies it should be substantial. In addition, the patient is likely to see blood in his semen as well, which is a serious enough situation to cause the man to worry.

Certain treatments are meant to palliate advanced stage prostate cancer, which is generally what the blood in semen signifies. A man at a high risk of the disease should know well enough to get that medical test in a hurry. Although there are several screening tests that usually are done to determine if the man has prostate cancer, he may skip them all and head straight for the prostate biopsy. With an examination of the cells of his prostate gland under the miscroscope, they can know precisely how much to worry… and start to decide on treatments.

But that is precisely it; deadly disease that it is, prostate cancer symptoms rarely appear early because the malignancy itself is a rather slow growing disease by and large When they do appear the indicators generally include frequent urination, increased urination at night, difficulty starting and maintaining a steady stream of urine, blood in the urine, and painful urination. Prostate cancer may also cause problems with sexual function and performance, such as difficulty achieving erection or painful ejaculation.

The forgoing are explained by the fact that the prostate gland surrounds the prostatic urethra, so that changes within the gland directly affect urinary function. The sexual problems also result from 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.

But it doesn’t end there: prostate cancer signs in the advanced stages occur if and when the cancer happens to spread to other parts of the body and cause additional symptoms. Bone pain is the most common such symptom, usually located in the lower back, ribs, or pelvis. Other bones that often get affected by this include the femur, the phalanges in the feet, and possibly even the skull. Such spread is often to the proximal part of the bone.

And just to prove that it can get worse, prostate cancer cells can metastasize to the inside of the spinal column as well, causing the cells to compress the soft milky whitish mass that is so critical to the central nervous system. Presto, the symptoms of that include weakness, usually in the leg, and loss of continence of the fecal and urinary types. There is talk that it also causes paralysis on the long run.

There isn’t much that can be done for someone with advanced prostate cancer, save to make him feel comfortable and perhaps prolong his life somewhat for whatever purpose.

When the symptoms of prostate cancer appear, they include pain in urine, difficulty starting and maintaining a stream of urine, and increased urination. By the way, the increased urination occurs at night, which may make it difficult to observe the blood in urine at first. However within a short while, the patient will see that one too – cause for concern, that.

It’s because of the location of the prostate gland – chestnut shaped, sitting just under the bladder and partially surrounding it. There is hardly a way that anything could affect the prostate gland without affecting urinary function in some way. The fact that the prostate also partially enwraps the urethra certainly does not make it that much easier; and the fact that the prostate produces some of the fluid that is ejaculated at sexual orgasm explains the blood in ejaculate, which signifies perhaps the extreme damage to the prostate.

Blood in semen often occurs when the cancerous tumor has started to break out of the prostate into the bloodstream and out into other locations around the body, something that really should never be allowed to happen. Other problems with sexual function and performance that result from prostate cancer may include painful intercourse, painful ejaculation, and erectile dysfunction (difficulty achieving an erection).

And those were all for when the disease was still nice – later stages of the disease tend to bring with them their own complications and indicators. The most common symptom of advanced stage prostate cancer is bone pain, signifying bone metastasis of the disease. The bone pain typically begins in the prostate region or pelvis, but soon it is out as far as the skull sometimes, getting through the backbone and the ribs in the process.

Advanced stage prostate cancer could do damage to the femur too, often causing proximal pain in the thigh bone. In some instances, the disease could progress such that the spreading cancerous cells start to compress the spinal cord, causing what some would refer to as the worst of the disease – leg weakness and perhaps paralysis, plus fecal and urinary incontinence.

The earliest symptoms of prostate cancer are perhaps increased urination at night. Soon enough the patient starts to feel pain while urinating and experience problems starting and maintaining a stream of urine. And then he might start to see blood in his urine. These problems often go concurrently with problems with sexual function or performance. There is painful intercourse, pain in ejaculation, and then bloom in ejaculate as well. No one takes that very likely at all.

And as though to prove that things really could get worse, prostate cancer on advancement can cause further symptoms, especially when the disease has spread from the prostate gland to other locations around the body. Swollen lymph nodes are common, and bone pain is even more common. Bone pain often starts in the pelvis, but soon it moves to the lower back, and then to the ribs. It can radiate downwards too, moving to the proximal part of the femur, for instance. And worse still, metastatic prostate cancer cells could build up and press against the spinal cord in the vertebral column, causing other problems such as leg weakness and incontinence – both fecal and urinary. 

Treatment of prostate cancer can take any number of routes, depending on how far the disease has advanced before it is discovered, how healthy the patient is overall, and perhaps the age of the man. Prostate cancer diagnosed early can be cured by removing the prostate gland entirely in a surgical process called radical prostatectomy, or it can be damaged sufficiently for the tumor cells that constitute it to die using radiation therapy. A large tumor may be caused to shrink by hormonal therapy first before being operated upon or irradiated… as long as the cancer is still in the prostate.

There are other treatments too that may cure early stage prostate cancer and assure at least five years without relapse. Cryotherapy, proton therapy, and high intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) are examples of such. Treatment of advanced stage prostate cancer is however only to provide palliation for the patient, by prolonging the life of the patient, slowing the disease progression, delaying the symptoms, and relieving pain. To that end chemotherapy and hormonal therapy can be used, with some pain relievers to manage the pain due to bone metastasis of the disease.