Prostate cancer affects the prostate and the surrounding areas of the male's anatomy. It can usually be felt through the symptoms that begin to occur and they are usually telltale enough that you will want to seek medical attention anyway. But knowing that you have prostate cancer can help you get the proper treatment and see the proper people and also can help you make sure that you save time in the diagnosis phase if you are aware of what kind of illness you have.
Usually, this will be something you will experience if you are of older age, as men who age tend to have this frequently. Usually prostates become enlarged and presses up against the bladder and the urethra, which ultimately hinders any urine to flow through. That is why one of the major symptoms is the painful urine, or the inability to urine, or the sense of having to urinate too frequently. This all depends on the location of the internal structures. Additionally, you might even find blood in your urine or experience great pain as you are trying to urinate. You will feel pain not only in your stomach and anatomical parts but also in your buttocks and your backside, as well, making it quite an ordeal.
When you go in to see a doctor, you will probably be given a DRE, or a Digital Rectal Exam. Your doctor will feel your prostate by inserting a finger into your rectum and will determine if you have any lumps in there or abnormalities that suggest prostate cancer. Another thing your doctor might do is a prostate specific antigen test which will measure how much PSA you have in your blood. Usually when men have prostate cancer, their prostate will be working overtime making this PSA and the measurement results will reveal whether you have this prostate cancer or not.
However, sometimes this can happen even when there is no cancer present at all and when the prostate is only enlarged due to some inflammation but not because of cancerous reasons. Finally, the doctor might also do a transrectal ultrasound which uses a probe that checks the prostate via your rectum. It uses sound waves to bounce off your inner tissues and then the echoes they produce creates an image of your tissues so that the doctor can determine if you have it or not.
Another way to determine it is through a biopsy. Your doctor will remove cells and tissues and then examine them closely and in detail. If there are any cancer cells present then the doctor can determine how exactly it is spreading and whether it is in a severe or mild stage. Finally, once your diagnosis is complete, your doctor will determine your chance of recovery based on what stage the cancer is in and whether it has spread to just part of prostate, the entire prostate, or to other organs completely. Also, your doctor will factor in your age and your overall health as well as if this is the first time or if you are experiencing a relapse of prostate cancer.
Roberto Sedycias works as IT consultant for Polomercantil