What is Prostate Cancer?
Prostate cancer is the growth of the prostate caused by a tumour. It is rare in men aged under 40 but becomes more common as age increases.
It is estimated that as much as 60% of all men over 80 have some cancer in their prostate. The younger the person, the more aggressive and serious the cancer tends to be. The older the person, the more slowly developing it usually is - taking perhaps 10 years to become significant.
Although it is the most common cancer in men it only accounts for 3% of annual deaths. Lung cancer is responsible for 8% and heart disease for 30%. The reason why prostate cancer is not so fatal is that it mostly occurs in the oldest men, whose lives tend to be ended by other illnesses, and not by their prostate cancer. Nevertheless, any diagnosis of cancer will be very frightening.
As with other prostate illness, the main symptoms of difficult urination, or blood in the urine or semen tend to appear once the condition has been established. There are seldom any early warning signs which is why regular examinations should be considered. It is only by a detailed examination that cancer and not (benign prostatic hyperplasia - BPH) can be diagnosed. However, there is also debate about whether such examinations serve any useful purpose much later in life given the length of time it takes for the cancer to develop.
Treatment
There are three main options for dealing with prostate cancer which has not spread from the prostate:
- For men aged 70 and over with other serious illnesses the doctor may simply wait and see what happens since 90% of cancers will not progress significantly in the patient's lifetime. Intervention may be worse than leaving the illness alone.
- Radiation therapy is estimated to be as effective as surgery for up to 10 years, but there are many unpleasant and painful side effects. It also results in erectile dysfunction in 60% of men, which may or may not be treatable as outlined elsewhere on this web site.
- Surgery provides the best chance for a long term cure and involves the removal of the entire gland (radical prostatectomy) and an examination for further spread of the cancer. Erectile dysfunction is common following such surgery and many men opt to have a prosthesis implanted into the penis at the time of the operation to deal with this.
When the disease has been found to have spread to other locations in the body treatment is more complex and may involve a combination of interventions, each of which will have its own impact upon sexual activity similar to what has been described above.
