5 Answers on Prostate Cancer

Prostate Cancer is the second commonest causes of cancer amongst men. Figures from the United Sates indicate that the average male stands a one in five chance of developing Prostate Cancer. In the UK it is an illness that kills 10, 0000 men a year, with 25, 000 sufferers being diagnosed each year.

5 Answers on Prostate Cancer

It is not surprising therefore that anyone told they have prostate cancer will have a number of questions.

Here are 5 of the most crucial questions with answers provided to guide the often-perplexed patient.

1. What are the early symptoms of Prostate Cancer?

Early stage prostate disease does not usually have symptoms. Enlargement of the prostate can cause attendant difficulty in passing water, blood in the water and a reduction in urinary stream. This is usually caused by what is called benign enlargement of the prostate

2. What is the difference between a tumour and cancer?

A tumour comprises enlargement of any group of cells within the body. Tumours can be benign or malignant. Benign tumours may cause problems locally by enlargement, such as reduction of urinary scheme. They are not, however, malignant. Cancers have two properties, which cause them to be malignant. They can invade locally and they can spread to distant sites.

3. How do tumours kill people?

Tumours can kill people by a variety of mechanisms. First, they can run away with all the essential foodstuffs that the body requires and while the body is starving, the tumour is growing at the expense of its host.

Tumours can additionally cause problems by growing in places where they cause local damage and obstruction,.g. tumours growing within the central nervous system can cause problems with the circuitry of the nervous system.

Secondary tumours growing in the liver can press on the bile ducts and cause jaundice.

Tumours can produce substances, which then cause the rest of the body to malfunction.

4. Why is cancer so common?

We could ask instead why with all the numbers of dividing cells within the body is cancer not actually more common? It does tend to become more frequent as we get older and this is due mainly to DNA damage and also reaction to agents, such as viruses that subvert the normal pattern of cell replacement.

5. How quickly does the cancer grow?

Different cancers grow at different rates. Some men?s prostate may harbour it for many, many years, before it becomes clinically evident.

Some men unfortunately have a very aggressive form of cancer and these can grow at a great rate and cause death within a very short space of time.

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