Prostate cancer is how common?
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As the most frequent disease affecting men and individuals AMAB, prostate cancer is relatively common, coming in second only to skin cancer. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 13 men with prostates out of every 100 may eventually get prostate cancer. Most men will lead regular lives and pass away from diseases unrelated to prostate cancer in the end. Some patients won’t require care.
Worldwide, an estimated 1,414,259 people were diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2020. It is the fourth most commonly diagnosed cancer in the world. Prostate cancer incidence rates dropped steeply from 2007 to 2014 because screening guidelines at the time resulted in less prostate-specific antigen (PSA) testing.
The disease of prostate cancer is dangerous. Fortunately, the majority of men with prostate cancer are identified before the disease has spread past the prostate gland. When cancer is treated at this stage, it frequently vanishes.
What variations of prostate cancer are there?
Adenocarcinoma is most likely the type of prostate cancer you have if you are diagnosed with it. Adenocarcinomas begin in the cells of glands that release fluid, such as your prostate. Rarely, different cell types can develop into prostate cancer.
Prostate tumors of less prevalent kinds include:
Cancers with little cells.
Cancers of the transitional cells.
Neuropathic tumors.
Sarcomas.
A prostate gland tumor developing in the prostate gland, the majority of prostate malignancies develop gradually.
Which signs and symptoms accompany prostate cancer?
Rarely do symptoms of early-stage prostate cancer appear. As the illness advances, several problems could arise:
- Frequent and occasionally urgent urge to urinate, especially at night.
- Weak pee flow or intermittent urine flow.
- Dysuria is the condition of experiencing pain or burning while urinating.
- Bladder control issues (incontinence).
- Bowel incontinence, also known as fecal incontinence.
- Erectile dysfunction (ED) and painful ejaculation.
- Hematospermia, or blood in the sperm or urine.
- Your chest, hips, or low back may hurt.
These are Are issues with the prostate necessarily indicative of prostate cancer?
Not all prostate growths are cancerous. Other disorders that manifest prostate cancer-like symptoms include:
The condition known as benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) affects nearly everyone who has a prostate over time. This condition enlarges your prostate gland without raising your risk of developing cancer.
Younger people who have an enlarged prostate gland are most likely suffering with prostatitis. Your prostate gland might become inflamed and swollen due to the benign illness known as prostatitis. Infections with bacteria are frequently to blame.
Why does prostate cancer develop?
What makes cells in your prostate develop into cancer cells is unknown to experts. Prostate cancer develops when cells divide more quickly than usual, just like other cancers do. Cancer cells do not eventually die, but normal cells do. Instead, they proliferate and develop into a lump known as a tumor. Parts of the tumor may separate and “metastasize” to other regions of your body as the cells keep growing.
Fortunately, prostate cancer typically advances slowly. The majority of tumors are discovered before your prostate has been affected by the disease. At this point, prostate cancer is quite curable.
What are the prostate cancer risk factors?
The most typical risk elements are:
Age.
Growing older puts you at greater risk. If you’re over 50, you have a higher chance of being diagnosed. Prostate cancer affects adults older than 65 in about 60% of cases.
Ethnicity and race.
If you are Black or have African ancestry, you are at higher risk. You have a higher chance of developing prostate tumors that spread quickly. Additionally, you have a higher chance of developing prostate cancer before age 50.
History of prostate cancer in the family.
If you have a close relative who has prostate cancer, your risk of developing it is two to three times higher.
Genetics. Lynch syndrome and the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, which are linked to an elevated risk of breast cancer, are risk factors for the disease.
Other prostate cancer risk factors have been discovered in certain studies, however the evidence is conflicting. Other possible risk elements include:
Smoking.
Prostatitis.
Having obesity or a BMI of 30 or above.
STIs, or sexually transmitted infections.
Exposure to the chemical Agent Orange, which was employed in the Vietnam War.
TESTS AND DIAGNOSIS
Exactly how is prostate cancer identified?
Prostate cancer can be early detected thanks to screenings. At age 55, if your risk is average, you’ll likely get your first screening procedure. If you belong to a high-risk category, you could require earlier testing. Screenings typically come to an end at age 70.
If screenings reveal that you may have prostate cancer, you may need additional testing or procedures.
Testing for prostate cancer detection
If you need further testing due to prostate cancer symptoms, screening tests can reveal this.
Digital rectal examination: Your doctor feels your prostate gland with a finger that has been greased and gloved. A lump or hard spot could be cancer.
Blood test for prostate-specific antigen (PSA): The prostate gland produces a protein referred to as PSA. High PSA levels could be a sign of cancer. Additionally, levels increase if you have benign diseases like BPH or prostatitis.
Methods for diagnosing prostate cancer.
Not every person with prostate cancer will require a certain diagnosis. For instance, if your doctor believes that your tumor is developing slowly, they can decide against conducting any additional testing since they don’t think it has to be treated. You could require more tests, such as a biopsy, if it’s more aggressive (growing quickly or spreading).
Not every person with prostate cancer will require a certain diagnosis. For instance, if your tumor is believed to be slow-growing, your doctor may decide to postpone additional testing because it isn’t seen to be significant enough to warrant treatment. You could require more tests, such as a biopsy, if it’s more aggressive (growing quickly or spreading).
Imaging: Your prostate gland can be seen on an MRI or transrectal ultrasound, along with any suspicious-looking regions that might represent cancer. Imaging data can assist your doctor in determining whether to take a biopsy or not.
Biopsy: During a needle biopsy, a medical professional takes a sample of tissue to be examined for cancer in a laboratory. The only reliable approach to identify prostate cancer or determine its aggressiveness is through a biopsy. The biopsy tissue may be subjected to genetic testing by your doctor. Some cancer cells contain traits (such mutations) that increase their propensity to respond to particular therapies.
What prostate cancer classifications and stages are there?
To establish the severity of the disease and the kinds of therapies you require, healthcare professionals use the Gleason score and cancer staging.
Gleason rating
Your doctor can evaluate how abnormal your cancer cells are using the Gleason score. Your Gleason score increases as the number of aberrant cells increases. Your doctor can assess your cancer’s grade or potential for aggression using the Gleason score.
Prostate cancer staging
Your doctor can assess the stage of your cancer and how far it has spread by doing so. Cancer may just affect your prostate gland (local), invade surrounding structures (regional), or metastasis (spread to other organs). Your lymph nodes and bones are the most typical sites where prostate cancer spreads. Other organs such as the liver, brain, lungs, and others may also develop it.
CONTROL AND TREATMENT
How are these conditions managed or treated?
Your overall health, whether the cancer has spread, and how quickly it is spreading are just a few of the variables that will affect how you will be treated. You might collaborate with urologists, radiation oncologists, and medical oncologists depending on your therapy options. Most prostate cancers that are discovered in their early stages can be treated and recovered from.
Specific methods employed
Surveillance
If your cancer grows slowly and doesn’t spread, your doctor may choose to monitor your situation rather than treat you.
Active surveillance: To track the development of cancer, you have screenings, scans, and biopsies every one to three years. If the cancer is only in your prostate, is growing slowly, and isn’t causing any symptoms, active surveillance is most effective. Your doctor can begin treating you if your problem gets worse.
Active surveillance is comparable to watchful waiting, but it is more frequently applied to frailer cancer patients who are unlikely to respond to treatment. Testing occurs significantly less frequently as well. Treatments frequently concentrate on treating symptoms rather than removing the tumor.
Surgery
A damaged prostate gland is removed during a radical prostatectomy. It frequently eradicates prostate tumors that haven’t progressed. If your doctor thinks you would benefit from this procedure, they can advise you on the optimal removal technique.
Open radical prostatectomy: Your doctor removes your prostate gland by a single abdominal incision that extends from your belly button to your pubic bone. Compared to less invasive procedures like robotic prostatectomy, this technique is less common.
Robotic radical prostatectomy: With a robotic radical prostatectomy, your surgeon can operate through a number of small incisions. They use a console to control a robot system rather than directly controlling it.
Radiation treatment
Radiation therapy can be used alone or in conjunction with other therapies to treat prostate cancer. Additionally, radiation may help with symptoms.
Brachytherapy: Also known as internal radiation therapy, this process of treating cancer of the prostate includes implanting radioactive seeds there. With this method, cancer cells are destroyed but surrounding healthy tissue is kept intact.
External beam radiation therapy (EBRT) involves the direct application of potent X-ray beams to the tumor by means of a machine. High doses of radiation can be directed at the tumor while still protecting healthy tissue with specialized EBRT techniques like IMRT.
Integrated treatments
If the cancer has gone beyond your prostate gland, your doctor might advise systemic therapy. Systemic therapy circulate drugs throughout your body to kill cancer cells or stop them from proliferating.
Hormone therapy:
Testosterone promotes the proliferation of cancer cells. In order to counter testosterone’s contribution to the proliferation of cancer cells, hormone treatment employs medicines. The drugs either lower your testosterone levels or stop testosterone from getting to cancer cells, which is how they function. As an alternative, your doctor can advise having your testicles surgically removed (orchiectomy) to stop them from producing testosterone. Those who prefer not to use medicine can choose this operation.
Chemotherapy: Chemotherapy involves the use of drugs to kill cancer cells. If your cancer has gone past your prostate, you may undergo hormone treatment in addition to or instead of chemotherapy.
Immunotherapy: Immunotherapy helps your immune system get stronger so it can recognize and combat cancer cells more effectively. To treat advanced cancer or recurrent cancer (cancer that goes gone but then comes back), your doctor may advise immunotherapy.
Targeted therapy: To stop cancer cells from proliferating and reproducing, targeted therapy focuses on the genetic alterations (mutations) that transform healthy cells into cancer cells. Cancer cells with BRCA gene abnormalities are destroyed by targeted therapy for prostate cancer.
Targeted treatment
A more recent method of treatment called focal therapy eliminates malignancies inside the prostate. If the cancer is low risk and hasn’t spread, your doctor might advise this treatment. The majority of these therapies are currently regarded as experimental.
High-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU): Strong heat is produced by high-intensity sound waves to kill cancer cells in your prostate.
Cryotherapy:
Freezing prostate cancer cells with cold gases destroys the tumor.
Laser ablation: By killing the cancer cells in your prostate with intense heat, the tumor is removed.
Photodynamic therapy: Drugs increase the sensitivity of cancer cells to specific light wavelengths. These light wavelengths are applied by a medical professional to eliminate cancer cells.
What negative consequences might the treatment for prostate cancer cause?
Possible negative effects include:
Incontinence:
Even though your bladder isn’t full, you can leak urine when you cough, laugh, or have an intense urge to urinate. Without treatment, this issue often gets better throughout the first six to twelve months.
Erectile dysfunction (ED): Procedures such as surgery, radiation, and other medical procedures can harm the erectile nerves in the penis, which can impair your ability to achieve or sustain an erection. Erectile function usually returns in a year or two (occasionally sooner). The blood flow to your penis can be improved by taking drugs like sildenafil (Viagra®) or tadalafil (Cialis®), in the interim.
Treatments may impair your capacity to create or ejaculate sperm, which might lead to infertility. Before beginning therapy, you can store sperm in a sperm bank if you intend to have children in the future. After therapy, you might have sperm extracted. In this process, sperm is directly removed from testicular tissue and implanted into the uterus of your spouse.
If you are having any side effects from your treatment, consult your doctor. They frequently have helpful recommendations for medications and treatments.
PREVENTION
How may prostate cancer be avoided?
Prostate cancer cannot be prevented. Even so, following these instructions may lower your risk:
Have frequent prostate exams. According to your risk factors, ask your healthcare professional how frequently you should get checked.
Keep a healthy weight. Find out from your doctor what a healthy weight is for you.
Regularly moving around. More than 20 minutes of moderate-intensity activity each day, or 150 minutes per week, is advised by the CDC.
Consume a healthy diet. While there isn’t a single diet that will prevent cancer, healthy eating practices can enhance your general wellbeing. Eat entire grains, fruits, and veggies. Steer clear of processed foods and red meat.
Give up smoking. Don’t use tobacco products. If you smoke, work on quitting with the help of your healthcare physician.
PERSPECTIVE / PROGNOSIS
How likely it is that someone with prostate cancer will survive?
If your healthcare professional finds prostate cancer early, your prognosis is great. 99% of people who are diagnosed with prostate cancer that hasn’t gone elsewhere survive for at least five years after their diagnosis.
When the disease has metastasized, or spread outside of your prostate, your chances of surviving prostate cancer are less favorable. Five years later, 32 percent of men with metastatic prostate cancer are still alive.
How treatable is prostate cancer?
Yes, if it’s discovered quickly. In certain instances, cancer grows so slowly that immediate therapy may not be necessary. Prostate tumors that have not progressed past the prostate gland are frequently curable.
When should I make a call to my doctor?
If any of the following occur, contact your healthcare professional right away:
Peeing is challenging.
Frequent urination (incontinence).
Pain with urination or sexual contact.
Blood in the urine or the sperm.
What inquiries should I make to my doctor?
Ask your doctor the following questions if you have prostate cancer:
Has the cancer left my prostate gland and spread elsewhere?
What kind of care is recommended for my stage of prostate cancer?
What are the dangers and side effects of the treatment?
Does my family have a high chance of prostate cancer? Should we undergo genetic testing if so?
What sort of post-treatment care do I require?
Should I keep an eye out for complications?
Prostate cancer is frequently quite treatable when caught early and given the right care. Many patients who receive a diagnosis when the cancer has not gone past the prostate continue to lead healthy lives after therapy for several years. However, in a tiny percentage of cases, the illness can be aggressive and swiftly spread to other body parts. Based on your risk factors, your healthcare professional can talk about the ideal screening schedule. Depending on how quickly or slowly your cancer is spreading, they can suggest the best course of action.
Get checked early think of your family!
Costs of treatment for Cancers in Thailand?
According to King Chulalongkorn Memorial Hospital, one of the national leading cancer centers, approximate cost of radiation therapy in common cancers are listed below:
- Breast cancer: 69,300 – 84,500 baht
- Cervical Cancer: 145,000 baht
- Lung cancer: 141,100 – 197,600 baht
- Prostate cancer: 182,400 baht
- Colon cancer: 103,000 baht
