What You Can do to Survive Prostate Cancer

Medical journals tell us that if a man lives long enough, he will one day have prostate cancer.

Many men live long and productive lives with prostate cancer and never know they have it. Others will suffer and die from prostate cancer at an early age because they failed to recognize they had this terrible disease until it was too late for redmedial treatment.

Fortunately, we live in an age when the techniques for early diagnosis of prostate cancer are available to us, but far too many men are either unaware of these techiniques or for whatever reason fail to take advantage of them.

Over the past 10 years the PSA (Prostate Specific Antigen) test has proven to be an effective and accurate method of detecting at an early stage the presence of tumors and/or cancer cells in the prostate.

Prostate Specific Antigen is a protein which is produced by the prostate gland. It is always present in a man's blood stream, but normally at very low levels. PSA levels will increase as men age, but also increase more aggressively in the presence of a tumor in the prostate.

PSA levels are monitored through a simple blood test. Doctors recommend that PSA tests be conducted every year beginning at age 50 or at age 40 if a blood relative (father, brother, uncle) has been diagnosed with prostate cancer. The blood sample is sent to a laboratory which determines the PSA level. Normally, a PSA reading of less than 4.0 is acceptable, while higher readings indicate a potential problem.

Doctors will use the PSA reading in conjunction with a Digital rectal exam (DRE) to determine the existance of a tumor in the prostate gland. During a DRE, a doctor inserts a gloved finger into the rectum and feels the prostate gland through the rectal wall to check for bumps or abnormal areas.

Should either the PSA or DRE results (or both) prove adnormal the doctor may recommend a biopsy in order to confirm or rule out the presence of cancer cells.

A biopsy is conducted in the doctor's office or in an outpatient clinic. During this procedure the doctor takes multiple (5-6) samples from various locations on the prostate galnd by inserting a needle through the wall of the rectum. This procedure is slightly uncomfortable as the samples are taken.

The biopsy samples are sent to a laboratory which can deternine the presence of cancer cells. These samples can also provide an accuarte indication of how advanced and how agressive the particular cancer is, and whether the cancer cells have grown beyond the prostate gland.

Once the presence of cancer is verified the biopsy result are used by the doctor and patient to select a method of treatment. Several options are available . These include:

Surgery - to remove the entire prostate gland.

External Radiation - to kill cancer cells without surgery

Implantation of Radiation Seeds - to encircle the specific tumor and kill cancer cells without surgery.

Hormone Therapy - to neutralize the effect of testosterone on growth activity.

In older men 85+ relative to the aggressiveness of the cancer the doctor may recommend "watchful waiting", a treatment whch consists of observing the cancer and its' effects with no treatment until the cancer advances signifcantly or turns more aggressive.

Newer treatments become available with time. One very promising new treatment is Proton Therapy. Proton Therapy is a precise form of radiation treatment for cancer and other conditions. Minimizing damage to healthy tissue and surrounding organs, proton treatment is highly successful and results in fewer side effects.

Regardless of the treament selected those responding to early detection and treatment have with few exceptions extended not only the length of their lives , but the quality of their lives.

I submitted this article as a 7 year survivor of prostate cancer. I was very fortunate to have a diligent doctor who insisted (over my objections) that I have a PSA screening test annually. My PSA results never exceeded the 4.0 limit used as a benchmark for cancer presence, but my doctor reacted to a doubling of my PSA reading over that of the previous year.

A biopsy indicated the presence of a moderately aggressive cancer. I elected to have a radical prostatectomy (removal of the prostate gland). Because my particular cancer had indications that cells had escaped the prostate gland and may exist beyond the prostate I followed surgery one year later with a series of external radiation treatments. My PSA dropped to zero and while I will never claim to be cured of cancer (I am superstitious)....I am grateful to be a seven year survivor.

I write this for one reason and that is to encourage men everywhere to go on the offensive in prevention of this form of cancer. The 10, 15 and 20 year survival rates of men whose cancers were detected and treated early grow every year. Literally tens of thousands of men are alive today because they took control of their health by annual screening for this disease.

You can too.