Prostate Cancer Questions And Answers

Here are some prostate cancer questions and answers:

Questions: What are the symptoms?

Answers: Early prostate cancer often does not cause symptoms. When sypmotms of prostate cancer do occur, they may include any of the following problems:

• a need to urinate frequently, especially at night
• difficulty starting urination or holding back urine
• inability to urinate
• weal or interrupted flow of urine
• painful or burning urination
• blood in urine or semen

Only a doctor can determine whether such symptoms are caused by prostate cancer, BPH, or some other condition, such as an infection or stones in the prostate

Questions: Staging?

Answers: There are four stages:

• Stage A. Cancer could not e detected by rectal exam but was found during surgery to relieve problems with urination. Stage A tumors have not spread bryond the prostate.
• Stage B. The tumor can be felt in a rectal exam, but the cancer has not spread beyond the prostate.
• Stage C. The cancer has extended outside this prostate to nearby tissues.
• Stage D. Cancer cells have spread to nearby lumph nodes or to other parts of the body, most commonly to the bones.

Questions: What are the treatment options?

Answers: Treatment for prostate cancer depends on many factors . To develop a treatment plan to fit each patient's needs, the doctor considers the stage of the disease and the patient's age, general health, and feelings about the treatments and their possible side effects

Questions: How cancer of the prostate is treated?

Answers: There are treatments for all patients with cancer of the prostate. Three kinds of treatment are commonly used:

• Surgery (taking out the cancer)
• Radiation therapy (using high-dose x-rays or other high-energy rays to kill cancer cells)
• Hormone therapy (using hormones to stop cancer cells from growing).