8 Points for Men above 65 years : Prostate Health and Cancer

Men above 65 years are prone to disease related to prostate gland, which can be both benign or malignant. Benign enlargement of prostate causing obstruction to urine flow is a common problem. Such patient will have symptoms of poor urine flow, straining while voiding, hesitancy, urgency, increase frequency of micturition and increased night time voiding. Some patients will wet their bed while others will have total blockage of urine which may require catheterization.

Important aspects associated with Prostate Cancer:

• Age increases your risk: Advancing age increase the risk for malignancy in general. Malignancy of prostate per se can cause enlargement of prostate gland and hence will cause symptoms similar to the benign enlargement of prostate.
• Prostate Cancer can spread: Prostate cancer can also prevail in prostate which are small in size or don’t grow enough to cause symptoms. These small cancers can spread and seed at distant organs especially bones. The spread will cause symptoms of bone pain and pathological fracture in worse cases.

• Incidences are increasing: Prostate cancer incidence is rising day by day. This seems to be a side effect of industrialization and technology. According to some studies prostate cancer is the second most common cause of cancer.
• Factors causing Prostate Cancer: Change in life style of population, migration to urban areas, availability of better health services are some of the factors leading to the rising incidence of prostate cancer.
• Prostate Cancer is curable: Many patients loose hope after being diagnosed to have prostate cancer. But the fact is that prostate cancer is the one of the few cancers in which cure is possible. This will certainly depend on how early the disease is diagnosed or how mild the cancer is.
• Prostate Cancers can be easily detected: Prostate cancer is one of the few cancer which can be detected very early by screening tools. This allows early detection , diagnosis and treatment of cancer. Most authorities agree that all men over 50 years should undergo screening for prostate cancer. The two important tools used for screening are, serum prostate specific antigen (PSA) and digital rectal examination (DRE) by an expert urologist.
• For confirmation biopsy is a must: Any suspicious case requires confirmation using biopsy. Transrectal ultrasound and multiparametric MRI further aid in diagnosis and biopsy.
• Treatment differs according to stage & location: Localized prostate cancer and cancer which less aggressive can be treated by removing the entire prostate gland, this surgery is called radical prostatectomy. This can be done using open, laparoscopic or robotic ways. A more aggressive cancer require radiotherapy as a part of surgery or as a sole treatment. Prostate cancer is hormone dependent cancer so one of the important treatment of advanced cancer is hormone deprivation. This can be done both surgically and medically. Surgical hormone deprivation includes removal of source of male hormone (both testicles ). Currently there are many oral and injectable drugs which solve this purpose which any surgery. Advanced prostate cancer require a team of urologist, oncologist, radiotherapist and orthopedic surgeons for their management.