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Does Early Stage Prostate Cancer Have Symptoms?
Early stage prostate cancer usually doesn't have symptoms. It's typically detected and diagnosed through regular screening tests and physical exams.
Prostate cancer is typically a slow-growing cancer. It starts in the prostate gland, a walnut-sized organ just below the bladder in people assigned male at birth. The prostate gland produces seminal fluid, a component of semen that transports sperm.
Prostate cancer does not have symptoms in its early stages, but keeping up with regular screenings and tests often leads to early detection.
The American Cancer Society indicates around 1 in 8 people assigned male at birth will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during their lifetime, and experts expect nearly 300,000 new prostate cancer diagnoses in 2024.
While prostate cancer primarily affects people over the age of 65 years, your risk for prostate cancer depends on a number of variables. Family medical history, race/ethnicity, and lifestyle habits may all contribute to risk.
Because prostate cancer is slow-growing and routine screening is recommended after a certain age, it's often detected in its early stages.
Early stage prostate cancer is a broad diagnostic term used to indicate several formal stages of cancer that haven't spread beyond the prostate gland. "Early stage" prostate cancer can mean something different for each person based on certain diagnostic markers and tumor features.
As a cancer that's usually slow-growing, prostate cancer can stay in its early stages for years. It affects everyone differently, however, and there's no way to know how long it may take your cancer to progress.
Most people with early stage prostate cancer don't have noticeable symptoms.
As a slow-growing type of cancer, prostate cancer can exist in the prostate for long periods of time (years) before it grows enough to affect function or press on surrounding structures, causing discomfort.
Even when early stage prostate cancer does grow, the prostate gland isn't directly involved in your vital life processes. This can make symptoms vague and less obvious than cancers affecting your lungs or heart, for example. Some symptoms might get dismissed as natural age-related changes or be attributed to other underlying causes.
Early stage prostate cancer symptoms are not common, and there's no universal early warning sign that can prove cancer is affecting your prostate.
An older 2015 review of studies looking at clinical features in suspected prostate cancer suggests that, while lower urinary tract issues sometimes present, no signs or symptoms can be considered good predictors of prostate cancer.
How will I know when to go to the doctor?Since most people don't notice any symptoms of early stage prostate cancer, knowing when to visit your doctor comes from understanding your individual risk factors. Your age, race/ethnicity, lifestyle, genetics, and medical history can all matter.
Having a discussion with your doctor about your risk factors helps you decide when and if routine screenings should happen.
Regular physicals, along with prostate cancer screenings and tests, are your best chances at early detection.
As prostate cancer advances, it can start affecting surrounding structures of your pelvis. If prostate cancer metastasizes, or spreads to distant areas of the body, more whole-body symptoms are possible.
Symptoms of advanced prostate cancer can include:
In metastatic prostate cancer, you may notice unique symptoms related to different areas of the body now affected by cancer. If cancer has spread to your lungs, for example, you may experience coughing or breathlessness.
Yes, it's possible to detect prostate cancer early through PSA testing or a digital rectal exam (DRE).
PSA testing measures the level of PSA in your bloodstream. PSA is a protein made by the cells of the prostate gland. Higher-than-average PSA levels could indicate the presence of prostate cancer. Because false readings are possible, it cannot definitely diagnose prostate cancer.
Your doctor may also perform a DRE, which involves the insertion of a gloved, lubricated finger into your rectum to manually feel the prostate. Early stage prostate cancer can be too small for DRE detection, but manual assessment of the prostate can detect larger tumors or unusual changes in the organ's size and structure.
If early screening tests come back suspicious of prostate cancer, your doctor will recommend a prostate biopsy or other advanced testing options.
Anyone with a prostate can develop prostate cancer, but certain people have a higher risk than others.
You may be more likely to develop prostate cancer if you:
Experts are currently investigating possible links between prostate cancer risk and smoking, conditions of prostate inflammation, and surgical procedures like vasectomies.
Most people who receive a diagnosis of early stage prostate cancer don't experience noticeable symptoms. If symptoms do appear, they're often related to changes in urinary frequency and flow or blood in the urine or semen.
PSA testing and DREs can help detect early stage prostate cancer even when symptoms are absent. Your doctor will recommend a screening protocol based on your individual prostate cancer risk factors.
5 Signs Of Prostate Cancer You Shouldn't Ignore
One of the most prevalent malignancies in men, particularly as they age, is prostate cancer. Prostate cancer can have a variety of symptoms, some of which are obvious, while others can be missed or mistaken for less serious conditions. It is essential to identify these subtle signs to receive early detection and efficient treatment.According to the Lancet Commission, the number of cases of prostate cancer is projected to triple and the number of deaths to grow by 85% between 2020 and 2040, making it a major global health concern.Early detection and treatment are important, particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), where most of this increase is projected to occur. The course of prostate cancer is slow over several years. Until the condition has gotten big enough to be detected, most men ignore the symptoms. Nonetheless, the probability of a successful course of treatment is increased by identifying the early signs of prostate cancer.Having trouble urinating Having trouble urinating is one of the most common early indicators of prostate cancer. Weak urine flow, frequent urination (especially at night), or the feeling that the bladder isn't emptying are possible symptoms of this. These symptoms arise from the prostate's ability to press against the urethra when it is big or tumorous, restricting it and making urination difficult.
Blood in semen or urine According to Dr. Rahul Wagh, Consultant: Surgical Oncology, Manipal Hospital, Baner, Pune, "Blood in the urine or semen (hematuria or hemospermia) can be concerning and shouldn't ever be ignored. While there are other probable causes for similar symptoms, prostate cancer is a possibility, so one should be checked out right away."
Pain or discomfort Prostate cancer can be indicated by chronic pain or discomfort in the thighs, lower back, or pelvic area. The malignancy can spread to bones or other tissues, causing this discomfort. Unfortunately, bone pain might not appear until the cancer grows beyond the prostate gland, so men need to be aware of other symptoms and get help if they have unexplained bone pain.
Erectile dysfunction (ED) The inability to obtain or sustain an erection strong enough for sexual activity is known as erectile dysfunction (ED). Along with being a symptom of underlying medical disorders like prostate cancer, ED can also be brought on by several other reasons, like stress, anxiety, or vascular problems. Problems with erectile function may arise from prostate cancer's impact on the nerves and blood vessels in the pelvic region. Men who get ED regularly should see their doctor to rule out any serious core reasons.
Weight loss and fatigue Sudden weight loss and persistent fatigue may indicate that cancer is being actively fought by the body. These symptoms could be an immediate manifestation of the malignancy, or they could be a systemic reaction to the disease. Such symptoms call for a careful medical checkup and should not be ignored.
Treatment options in the new era Treatment options for prostate cancer patients differ based on the disease's stage and severity. Prostatectomy and other similar surgical procedures entail the excision of the prostate gland and can be carried out with the use of robotic surgery or other minimally invasive methods. Chemotherapy, hormone therapy, and radiation therapy are examples of non-surgical treatments. Active surveillance, which entails keeping a careful eye on the disease and only treating it if it advances, is often a possibility for early-stage cancer.By helping to identify the most appropriate course of treatment—immunotherapy, chemotherapy, hormone therapy, or radiation—based on a patient's genetic profile, artificial intelligence (AI) technologies are transforming the way that prostate cancer is treated. AI can help develop molecular treatments that target specific genetic alterations in the cancer cells of a given subgroup when the original treatment is insufficient for them. This allows for more individualised approaches to treatment.
Understanding Brain Tumor Diagnosis
A PSA For Prostate Cancer
No signs, no symptoms: That's often how prostate cancer starts. The warning signs often come when it's too late.
"Really it's a boring story, I didn't have any symptoms, I went to a yearly exam, and my primary doctor suggested maybe this year, I need to start doing a yearly PSA test," Andrew Moore recalled.
Moore lives in Ephraim, and after one of those PSA tests, his life would change.
"That's the really important thing about prostate cancer screening, is that there really are no symptoms," said Dr. Heather Stefaniak, a urological surgeon at Aurora BayCare Medical Center.
"The only way we have of knowing that it's there is an elevated PSA, which is prostate-specific antigen, it's a protein that the prostate makes," said Dr. Stefaniak.
At his routine check-up last fall, Moore's PSA blood test revealed extremely high PSA levels. After a biopsy, Moore was diagnosed with intermediate-grade prostate cancer at age 53.
That's when he was connected with Dr. Stefaniak at Aurora BayCare Medical Center.
"She went over the procedure and my choices and from there, I chose to have surgery," Moore recalled. "She was very good with telling me about the procedure and answering all my questions. She went over the pre- and post-op plan so that could potentially help, so then I could focus on that instead of the cancer," Moore said.
Moore underwent a robotic prostatectomy, a minimally invasive surgical procedure to remove the prostate. He'll still have regular PSA tests for the next 10 years, but now he's cancer-free.
And while catching it early is important, so is dispelling some of the stigma surrounding prostate cancer.
"People say, 'Oh I'll die with prostate cancer rather than from prostate cancer,"' Dr. Stefaniak said. "Well, when you're 52-years-old, have intermediate prostate cancer, have 30-plus years of life (left), prostate cancer will cause you a problem if you don't do anything," she said.
Moore hopes more men will look out for this silent killer, too.
"I would tell them don't just go to the doctor when you're feeling sick or have some sort of symptoms. Find a doctor, go to them every year, and listen to their suggestions because you may have a problem and it might get caught early," said Moore.
To learn more about prostate cancer treatment options, visit Aurora BayCare's website.
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