Whats Prostate Cancer Staging – The Different Stages That Many People Don’t Know About

Treatment doesn’t just begin for a prostate cancer patient at the immediate instance after he has been diagnosed because the treatment, when it is administered, has to be very precise to the extent to which the cancer has progressed.

It is especially important to note that all the treatments (at least the conventional ones) that are available for prostate cancer have their own respective side effects, which the patient does not have to go through if… if he does not have to.

This is why the cancer has to be stages. There are four stages to prostate cancer:

Stage one prostate cancer, at which point the adenocarcinoma is virtually undetectable by any means save a surgery… something that no surgeon will touch without justifiable causes.

Stage two prostate cancer, in which the tumor has grown enough to possibly be detected by a DRE test, and likely the cancer would have caused a spike in the blood PSA level of the patient.

Stage three prostate cancer would have progressed enough to start to give off a few warning signs as the tumor starts to filter into the bloodstream; and

Stage four prostate cancer is when the cancer has spread to various regions across the body, characterized most noticeably by bone metastasis and bone pain.

The staging of prostate cancer is to determine precisely how far the cancer has spread so that the right kinds of treatment can be given. Further tests therefore have to be carried out, which include an MRI scan, a CT scan, and a ribonucleic bone scan. The MRI – magnetic resonance imaging – is a medical diagnostic technique that combines strong magnetic fields with radio waves and computer technology to create images of the body using the principles of nuclear magnetic resonance.

There is almost no part of the body that is protected from the MRI, so that if metastatic cancer cells are in the body, they will light up like a Christmas tree when observed this way.

The CT or CAT scan is also called computed tomography or computer axial tomography. It is medical technology that makes use of x-rays in producing three dimensional images of the human body, thus providing detailed views of the body’s soft tissues – blood vessels, muscle tissue, and various organs: just what is needed to determine the spread of prostate cancer.

The ribonucleic bone scan is obviously for the determination of bone metastasis of the disease, and the extent of damage done to the bones. It lights up areas of higher and lower bone density as hot and cold spots, neither of which are good news, and allows the doctor to determine just how much be needs to pay attention to the bones if he is going to delay the skeletal complications and slow disease progression.

Different Stages of Prostrate Cancer – Many People Don’t Know

Prostate cancer has been misspelled by so many people but they all mean the same thing – whether prostrate cancer or postrate cancer.

Talking about the different stages, it’s indeed true. This cancer has stages, and with the furtherance of stages come more and more complications. Although the general consensus is that cancers are incurable, certain stages of prostate cancer are in fact treatable to the point of cure – the early stages. It is in the later stages that the stage complications get so bad that no remedy will do.

Prostate Cancer Stage I – The origins of prostate cancer may not be clear, but the procedure of the growth of the tumor is unambiguous enough. It starts so small in the prostate gland, probably with a single cell mutating and beginning to grow at an alarming rate, infecting the cells closest to it.

Stage I prostate cancer is undetectable by any screening method, and the fact that there are no symptoms at this stage of the disease only makes matters worse. Chances are a PSA workup may not even suggest it, so that the only way it may be discovered is by accident if a surgeon stumbles on the slow growing tumor by accident when performing some other operation on the patient.

Prostate Cancer Stage II – At this point, the tumor is big enough to be detected by a DRE, although still yet no symptoms worth writing home about. Only if the patient comes in for the screening tests may the adenocarcinoma even be suspected; otherwise he could live on for several more years without even knowing that he has the disease. Prostate cancer is slow growing enough in men that some may actually die of other causes without knowledge of its presence.

Prostate Cancer Stage III – The cancer in this phase of the disease is not much of a problem either: the tumor is large enough to begin to cause some discomfort, although the patient may not be paying too much attention to it just yet. The best way still to detect it is to go through the prostate cancer screening program, which would certainly culminate in a biopsy of the prostate gland in order to confirm the diagnosis.

Patients at this stage of the disease need to commence treatment in a hurry before things get really complicated because the cancer would by now be filtering into the bloodstream.

Prostate Cancer Stage IV – This one is in two parts. Stage IV D1 is when the cancer is out of the prostate but still only locally advanced (in the vicinity of the organ itself. Staging will show up malignant cells in the region of the pelvis, but not likely further out; stage IV D2 is highly advanced metastatic prostate cancer in which the tumors have reached out to far out locations all over the body – under normal circumstances, not a chance of curing the disease, only perhaps slowing it down enough to give the patient some more time.

But like we have said so many times in this website, there’s now HOPE for all prostate cancer sufferers, regardless of the stage of the condition. Read more of the articles on this website to learn more about the different treatments for prostate cancer that work and how to survive prostate cancer, regardless of the stage.

Bone Metastasis of Prostate Cancer – Important Tips That Many Don’t Know

Advanced prostate cancer occurs when the malignancy of the cells of the prostate gland has migrated out of the prostate through the bloodstream and lymphatic system and is now move around the body to other locations all around the body. Such a spread, or metastasis, of the disease for some reason happens to have an affinity for the skeletal system so that the bones in the body of the patient are often attacked the worst. 

Bone metastasis of prostate cancer occurs when the cancerous cells travelling through the body fluids break of and attach themselves to the bone, commencing to multiply rapidly and uncontrollably until the disease has taken over completely. Prostate cancer is ordinarily a slow growing adenocarcinoma, but by the time it advances to bone metastasis it usually isn’t so slow anymore.

The metastasis causes regions of higher concentration to occur in the bone, and regions of lower concentration also. These show up in ribonucleic bone scans as hot spots and cold spot, which could be misleading because most people are prone to thinking that one of them is better or safer than the other. Neither is, because they work together to cause the bones of the patient to fracture in what could be construed to be a spontaneous way.

Bone metastasis also causes bone pain which begins as the cancer grows on the bone and continues through the bone fracturing.

Early stage disease cancer be cured, but not advanced prostate cancer; by the time the disease advances to bone metastasis by the way, all hope of curing the condition is more or less gone. It can be treated though, and effectively. Such a level or phase of the disease is generally one in which the quality of life of the patient drops drastically, so that treatment is often aimed at improving quality of life for the patient, and prolonging his life in the process. Managing the bone pain is also definitely an objective, as is slowing the progression of the disease, all of which are actually possible.

Some processes and treatments for bone metastasis of prostate cancer are still being studied but some are available already. For one, bisphosphonates can help to deal with the pain, as can abiterone acetate – although this latter medication is still in clinical trials. Hormonal therapy may slow disease progression, but if the cancer is resistant to hormone treatments, then chemotherapy will have to do. Radiation therapy can treat all phases of the disease anyhow, so it also applies, but if all else fails, at least the narcotics (opioid pain relievers like morphine) can do the honors.

Next Page »