Prostate Cancer Awareness
Join Healthy Lifestyles to help raise awareness for prostate cancer and early detection!
Come to the Government Center TODAY from 11am-1pm. Play some golf, wii games, and more to earn tickets for a raffle full of fun prizes!Don't forget to WEAR BLUE to support early detection and screening (and to get an extra ticket to be placed in the raffle)!
You don't have to be a member of healthy lifestyles to participate. This event is open to ALL county employees. To learn more visit www.university.slco.org/schoolhealth/
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September is Prostate Cancer Awareness month! Take a moment to learn more about prostate cancer to increase individual awareness and encourage early detection for yourself or a loved one! http://blueallover.org/
The more you know about the normal development and function of the prostate, where it’s located, and what it’s attached to, the better you can understand how prostate cancer develops and impacts a man’s life over time—due either to cancer growth or as a result of treatments.
Normal Anatomy
The normal prostate is a small, squishy gland about the size of a walnut. It sits under the bladder and in front of the rectum. The urethra—the narrow tube that runs the length of the penis and carries both urine and semen out of the body—runs directly through the prostate. The rectum, or lower end of the bowel, sits just behind the prostate and the bladder. Sitting just above the prostate are the seminal vesicles—two little glands that secrete about 60% of the substances that make up semen. Running alongside and attached to the sides of the prostate are the nerves that control erectile function.
Normal Physiology
The prostate is not essential for life, but it’s important for reproduction. It supplies substances that facilitate fertilization and sperm transit and survival, loosen up semen to help sperm reach the egg during intercourse, give sperm energy to make this journey, and protect the urinary tract and sperm from bacteria and other pathogens.
The prostate typically grows during adolescence under the control of the male hormone testosterone and its byproduct DHT, or dihydrotestosterone.
Prostate Zones
The prostate is divided into several anatomic regions, or zones. Most prostate cancer develops from the peripheral zone near the rectum. That’s why a digital rectal exam (DRE) is a useful screening test.
BPH, a non-cancerous prostate condition, typically develops from the transition zone that surrounds the urethra, or urinary tube. This explains why the condition is typically more symptomatic than prostate cancer.
What is Prostate Cancer?
The term “cancer” refers to a condition in which cells accumulate uncontrollably—the ability to regulate cell growth or death is lost. So instead of dying as they should, prostate cancer cells outlive normal cells and go on to form masses of new, very small abnormal cells known as tumors. (Primary tumors are the original tumors; secondary tumors occur if/when the original cancer spreads to other locations.)
In most cases, prostate cancer is relatively slow-growing, which means that it typically takes a number of years to become large enough to be detectable, and even longer to spread beyond the prostate.
Calculating Risk
To decide what the risk is for a given prostate cancer, doctors will consider several factors, including:
- The stage of the cancer (how large the cancer is and how far it has spread - Stages are typically expressed as a T score [depending on whether the cancer is very tiny and picked up only by PSA testing or whether it is invading other organs], N score [depending on whether the cancer has spread to lymph nodes], and M score [depending on whether the cancer has spread outside the prostate to other parts of the body, such as bones or lungs].
- The grade of the cancer (called the Gleason score provided by a pathologist who examines the cancer under a microscope—A Gleason sum ranges from 2-10: 2 being basically like a normal prostate, and 10 looking extremely aggressive. Most men will have a Gleason sum of 6-7 at diagnosis. )
- The PSA level (including the rate of rise of the PSA)
By categorizing cancers, doctors can provide an estimate of prognosis and success with various treatment options, including little or no treatment. For example, men with low-risk cancers (small volume, early stage, low Gleason, low PSA tumors) have a very high cure rate, in excess of 90%. At this stage, the disease is often curable with standard interventions, such as surgery or radiation therapy that aims to remove or kill all cancerous cells.
Metastatic Prostate Cancer
If untreated and allowed to grow, cells from cancerous tumors can spread in a process called metastasis. During metastasis, prostate cancer cells are transported through the lymphatic system and the bloodstream to other parts of the body, where they lodge and grow secondary tumors.
The spread of cancer can be detected by the presence of prostate cancer cells in areas surrounding the prostate, such as the seminal vesicle, the capsule that surrounds the prostate, the lymph nodes in the groin area, the rectum, and bones.
When the disease spreads to other sites, it is still considered prostate cancer. It is no longer curable, but remains highly treatable.
Prognosis
Approximately 90% of all prostate cancers are detected in the local and regional stages, so the cure rate is very high, but prostate cancer is still a highly fatal disease. A man with prostate cancer has a 1 in 6 – 8 chance of dying from the disease, and nearly 88 American men die from it every day.
As with all cancers, “cure” rates for prostate cancer describe the percentage of patients remaining disease-free for a specific time. In general, the earlier the cancer is caught, the more likely it is for the patient to remain disease-free. The problem is that many men are walking around now with prostate cancer and do not know it. That is why preventative measures, regular medical examinations, and early detection is so important!
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Prostate Cancer Awareness
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