Prostate Cancer Symptoms, Treatment, Causes & Stages

The prostate is a gland of the male reproductive system. It is located in front of the rectum and just below the bladder. Its main function is to produce fluid for semen, which transports sperm.

Prostate cancer is a malignant tumor that begins most often in the outer part of the prostate. It may spread to the inner part of the prostate and beyond the prostate to other parts of the body.

Who gets prostate cancer?

Most men who get prostate cancer are above the age of 50 years and the risk increases with age. Other risk factors are family history and smoking

What are the stages of prostate cancer?

Stage 1

The doctor is unable to feel the tumor, but has been found during TUR-P or was found by needle biopsy that was done for elevated PSA

Stage 2

The doctor can feel the tumor by rectal examination and it appears confined to the prostate gland.

Stage 3

Cancer has spread beyond the prostate to nearby tissues like seminal vesicles

Stage 4

Cancer has spread to other organs like bladder, rectum, the pelvic lymph nodes or to distant parts of the body, most commonly to the bones.

How is prostate cancer treated?

Your doctor may use one or more of the following methods – surgery, hormone treatment, radiation and anti-cancer drugs. The choice depends on the stage of the cancer, your age and other medical co-morbidities.

Radical prostatectomy is used to treat cancer localized in the prostate and involves complete removal of the prostate. Often the pelvic lymph nodes are removed as well.

Radiation therapy uses high energy x-ray beam to kill cancer cells. Radiation may be given from a machine located outside the body (external radiation therapy), or from a radioactive substance introduced directly into the tumor. Sometimes a combination of these methods is used.

Both surgery and radiation provide excellent 10-year survival rates. Your doctor can help advise you about the best treatment for your kidney cancer.

Hormonal therapy is used to treat prostate cancer which has spread beyond the prostate. The 2 basic techniques involve:

• drugs that prevent the release or counter the action of male hormones
• surgical removal of the testicles, which make the male hormones. Because male hormones stimulate the growth of prostate cancer, treatments that interfere with the effect of these hormones can slow the cancer’s growth, sometimes dramatically. Occasionally, chemotherapy is used.

NU Hospitals provide the cutting-edge prostate cancer surgery and treatment in Bangalore, India. We also provide Kidney transplant surgery.