Important Information On What Is Considered The Best Treatment For Prostate Cancer

Have you recently been diagnosed with prostate cancer? If so, you need to sit down and discuss all the possible treatment options with your doctor. Some treatments may not be appropriate for you, so it's important to determine which options are most suitable. There are a number of factors that need to be considered when determining which type of treatment is likely to be the most effective. It's often quite difficult to determine which treatment is most appropriate, as it depends how much you give to each factor. Some men also find it difficult to cope with the idea of living with the side effects of certain treatments, such as baldness, impotence or urine incontinence.

Initially, you need to consider basic factors such as your age, overall level of health, your goals for treatment, and how you feel about possible treatment side effects. These should be discussed extensively with your doctor and partner. If something is really bothering you, it's important to share that with your doctor. You have a right to be fully informed about all your options. Addressing your concerns and trying to find a treatment that is effective but still acceptable to you is part of the duties and obligations of your doctor. If you don't care about side effects and you just want to get rid of the cancer, fine. But if your concerns are substantial, even to the point of being more important than curing the cancer, then you need to share those concerns upfront.

It's also important to think about your age. If you're already in your 70's and your health is poor, it may not be the preferred choice to follow an aggressive treatment regime. Prostate cancer is a relatively slow growing cancer, and it can take years before it spreads into other parts of your body. If cancer is left alone, and not operated on, it's often found that it grows even slower. So you could use this to your advantage. Instead of risking your life by undergoing surgery, it may be a better choice to undertake hormone therapy. This is unlikely to get rid of the cancer, but it can retard its growth to a great extent. The advantage of hormone therapy over other more invasive treatments is that it also has very few uncomfortable side effects.

If you're only in your 50's or 60's, or even if you're older but in good health, then you might be more interested in the treatments that offer the best chance of a cure. These can include things such as radical prostatectomy, external radiation and radioactive treatment, as these are generally considered the most effective methods for eradicating prostate cancer cells. However the side effects of these treatments can be serious, ranging from urine incontinence to impotency. This is why it can be very important for you to consider all factors before choosing which treatment option you want to pursue. There's no need to make an instant decision, you should take the time to discuss treatment with your family and partner. Whatever decision you make, the support of your family and friends is very important.

For even more important and essential information on prostate cancer treatments, prostate cancer diagnostic testing, and prostate cancer symptoms please visit the OnlineProstateHealthGuide.com

Prostate Cancer Survival Rates in UK

There are approximately 25 000 men newly diagnosed with prostate cancer every year in the United Kingdom. For these men the risk of dying from their prostate cancer depends on a number of risk factors. For example if the cancer is confined to the prostate gland at diagnosis the chance of surviving to 5 years is 70%. If the cancer has already spread e.g. to the bones then only 20% of men will survive to five years. Of all the men who currently have prostate cancer in the UK approximately 10,000 will die of the disease each year. The prostate cancer survival rate is much higher in the developed world - unsurprisingly.

When a man is first diagnosed with prostate cancer then the doctor who has found the cancer (most often a ?urologist? ? a surgeon who specialises in looking after problems to do with the kidneys, prostate and bladder) will arrange a series of tests to help assess the risk for that individual patient. The results of these tests will in turn help the doctor and patient to decide the best treatment for that patient.

Prostate Cancer Tests to Help Predict Survival

1. Prostate Specific Antigen or PSA

2. Digital Rectal Examination or DRE

3. Trans-rectal Ultrasound and Biopsy

4. CT or MRI Scan

5. Bone Scan

PSA This is a protein made by the prostate gland which can be measured on a sample of your blood i.e. a blood test. The PSA level can be raised by non cancerous problems with the prostate gland i.e. not all men who have a raised PSA have prostate cancer. Also some men who have prostate cancer will not have a raised PSA. However PSA does tend to increase as prostate cancers grow, invade and spread so PSA can be used to monitor how a prostate cancer is progressing or how it is responding to treatments.

DRE This is where a doctor feels the prostate gland through the back passage. It tells the doctor how big the prostate gland is, whether the cancer is able to be felt easily and whether it has invaded the area near by.

Tran-Rectal Ultrasound and Biopsy For this test you need to lie on your side with your knees brought up into the chest (same position as for a DRE). An ultrasound probe is then inserted into the back passage. This enables the doctor to see on a screen the outline of the prostate gland. There is no radiation involved. The image on the screen then allows the doctor to insert a needle safely into the prostate gland to take some samples of the prostate tissue. Usually several samples are taken from each area of the prostate gland. These samples are then sent to a laboratory to be looked at under a microscope. This allows confirmation that there is prostate cancer present and tells us how aggressive the cancer looks. Sometimes a local anaesthetic is used to help make the procedure more comfortable.

CT or MRI Scan This is usually carried out in an x-ray department and involves lying still on a thin couch which moves through either a big donut (CT) or into a long tunnel (MRI). This is not painful in any way. The pictures gained from this test helps the doctors to see whether the prostate cancer is still within the prostate gland or whether it had started to invade out of the gland into other surrounding structures. This tells the doctor what ?stage? the prostate cancer is.

Bone Scan This requires you to have an injection and then to lie on a special table where a camera scans the whole body. It shows up whether any of the bones in the body have been affected by the prostate cancer i.e. whether the prostate cancer has spread to the bones.

Prostate Cancer Stage and Survival

The stage of prostate cancer describes how far the cancer has grown and spread. It is assessed by a mixture of DRE and CT/MRI scans.

T1 Stage This is very early prostate cancer which can only be seen under a microscope. At this stage the cancer would not cause any symptoms. Men with this stage are at low risk from their disease may not need any treatment but surveillance. The original cause of a prostate cancer problem can be difficult to diagnose.

T2 Stage This is early prostate cancer but is now big enough to be felt by a doctor on DRE. This may still not have caused any symptoms. This is most often cured if treatment is undertaken at this stage and about 70% of men are still alive after 5 years i.e. average length of survival from diagnosis is well over 5 years.

T3 Stage This is locally advanced prostate cancer which has started to extend and invade outside of the prostate gland. This stage would often cause bladder symptoms in men. By this stage in the disease the chance of cure with treatments is reduced however survival is often around five years.

T4 Stage This is more advanced prostate cancer which invades the structures around the gland. At this stage there are often already secondaries e.g. bone metastases. If the disease has spread it is usually incurable but may be controlled for some time. The average survival is between 1 and 3 years.

Predicting Survival in Prostate Cancer

Doctors use a combination of risk factors to predict the behaviour of prostate cancer but cancers do not always act as expected. The factors they consider include the cancer stage (see above), the age of the patient, the PSA level and how quickly it is rising, and the Gleason Score. The Gleason score is a marker of how aggressive the cancer looks under the microscope and how much of the gland is affected by cancer.

Adrian Jones has a personal interest in promoting awareness and self-help in dealing with several forms of cancer. This article is from his website dealing with prostate cancer and prostate cancer treatments. He writes on other forms of cancer, including colon cancer. This article is available for reprint for your website and/or newsletter, provided that you maintain its copyright integrity and include this resource box information.

Self Prostate Milking: For Pleasure and for Health

The prostate gland plays a major role both in a man?s reproductive capacity and his ability to enjoy sexual acts. Little wonder then that this organ has been called the ?male G-spot? or the ?male uterus.? Knowing the right way to stimulate it can bring intense orgasmic pleasure. And because some studies suggest that having orgasms regularly can prevent a host of prostate disorders, more and more men are finding it to their benefit to indulge in self prostate milking.

The prostate gland is responsible for producing semen, that milky liquid that carries spermatozoa coming from the testicles and out of the penis during orgasm. While masturbation and sexual intercourse do their part in relieving the prostate of its load of semen, there are times when a partner is unavailable or a man wants to try something other than regular masturbation for a change. Here is where self prostate milking comes into play.

How does one go about doing this, especially if it?s the first time? One of the things a man should overcome is the unease that he may feel at having something penetrate him anally. Some men wonder whether they have latent homosexual feelings if they indulge in this kind of activity. But this isn?t so; all men can engage in self prostate milking whatever their sexual orientation. Another concern is that the anus is ?dirty? or ?unclean? because it is where fecal matter comes out. Again, this is a misconception. In fact, the mouth harbors more bacteria than any other part of the body.

You should try to find the most comfortable position for you before starting. You can lie on your side or squat for easy access. The prostate swells when a man is sexually aroused, so it would be best if you are turned on before starting so that you find your prostate immediately. It?s a walnut-sized bump located about two inches inside the rectum, behind the base of your penis. To milk the prostate, massage it gently at first, either with your finger or a sex toy, then firmer and faster as the rhythm gets you. But be sure not to massage it too vigorously, or else you run the risk of injury.

Some men recommend masturbating the penis simultaneously with self prostate milking for a one-of-a-kind sexual experience. You could have prolonged and more intense orgasms this way, and with more than the usual amount of semen coming out, especially if you haven?t had any sexual activity for a while.

However, some men report that while they do not achieve orgasm when milking their prostate glands, the level of pleasure they feel is still very intense. The semen trickles out or flows into a pool even though there?s no ejaculation, in terms of how that word is commonly understood. Instead, one feels a deep sense of pleasurable fulfillment; it has been compared to a very good bowel movement ? only a hundred times more erotic.

You should be aware that there are studies indicating that certain men who masturbate or have ejaculations regularly have lower incidences of prostate inflammation, prostate cancer, and prostate enlargement. Given this evidence, self prostate milking seems to be a safe, convenient, and inexpensive way to make sure that one?s libido and prostate health are in optimum condition.

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