How to detect a prostate cancer according to symptoms?
- Do you feel burning during an urinating?
- Often nature’s calls?
- Regularly feel incomplete emptying?
- Periodical pain in the area of the perineum?
- The volume of sperm is decreased?
- Have problems with potency?
- What is prostate cancer?
- Adenoma of the prostate and prostate cancer
- First signs of prostate cancer
- Symptoms at the different stages of prostate cancer
- Primary methods for diagnostics
- How to detect whether a tumor is malignant?
What is prostate cancer?
Prostate cancer is represented with adenocarcinoma - a tumor derived from the epithelium of vessels walls of the prostate gland.
It grows slowly (for years), so a majority of men die because of the other reasons. According to the statistics - the sources of atypical cells appear in 2 out 3 men up to the age of 70.
If cancer appears in the age up to 50, prostate cancer develops faster and is very dangerous for a patient. It happens because the hormones and general level of metabolism in men of average age are higher than elderly ones.
How do cancer and benign prostatic hyperplasia differ?
Disease | Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) | Adenocarcinoma |
A benign tumor which does not threaten a patient’s life and does not spread to healthy tissues. BPH differs from cancer:
| A malignant tumor can grow through the neighboring tissues - the rectum, bladder, testicles, bones, muscles, etc. After a while, malignant cells spread to the lymph nodes, cause dysfunction of affected organs. | |
Treatment | It is treated with the surgical way at the latest stages, and with medication at the initial ones. |
Complex treatment: |
Survival prognosis | There is no risk to life | The highest chances for recovery are at the initial stages. |
In the rare cases, adenoma may malignize and become an adenocarcinoma. Symptoms of these diseases at the initial stages are the same.
Early symptoms of prostate cancer
Signs of prostate cancer appear at stage 2, and until this moment a disease has no symptoms.A process starts with the following signs:
- problems with the start of urinating
- weak urine stream
- a patient has a feeling that the bladder is never empty
- urinary incontinence
- often inflammatory diseases of the urinary tracts
- painful calls of nature.
A lot of patients try to sweat out, postpone a visit to a doctor. Such a behavior causes tumor development andappearance of specific symptoms of prostate cancer.
If you have such symptoms - appeal to an urologist.
Be attentive! If a disorder of urination appears together with erectile dysfunction, a key specialist for consultation is an urologist. A trial to treat potency in andrologist can lead to fast growth of a tumor (i.g, as a reaction to medications with testosterone).
Signs of prostate cancer at the different stages of the disease
Stage 1. Atypical cells are only in one lobe of the prostate. It is impossible to detect only on the base of the laboratory tests (PSA-biopsy).
Stage 2. Cancer is in both lobes of the prostate gland, within the capsule of the prostate. Blood in sperm (hemospermia) and urine (hematuria) can appear at this stage. Libido decreases, a pain appears.
Stage 3. Cancer is beyond the capsule, but the lymph nodes are not affected. 3-B stage - there are singular lymph nodes involved.
Stage 4. Remote metastases are detected (at least one). Such symptoms of secondary tumors appear:
- fatigue, loss of appetite, irritability;
- back pain (lumbar region), testicles, perineal muscles, bones;
- a decrease in the strength of the limbs. In advanced cases, paralysis occurs (a tumor compresses the spinal cord);
- body weight loss.
Diagnostics of prostate cancer
Diagnosis is established only after biopsy. Other methods are additional.
Rectal examination allows to suspect a disease - a proctologist feels the abnormal structure of the gland (in case of cancer, the prostate consolidates to the “stone” condition).
Increasing of PSA. It is a signal of the inflammatory process. If PSA is over 10, a biopsy is compulsory.
MRI of the small pelvis is a “gold standard” for diagnostics of the prostate gland. It easily detects a neoplasm, its borders, metastases up to 1 mm in diameter.
CT. A method is useful for the estimation of the level of metastatic spread in the bladder, intestines, lungs.
PET-CT is effective for searching of tiny metastases in any organ of a body.
How is a malignancy of a tumor is detected?
For the estimation of biopsy results and the following tactics of observation, Gleason scale (from 1 to 10 scores) is applied. The scores detect a malignancy of the gland cells. The higher malignancy, the worse prognosis is.