Your Quick Guide To Facts About Prostate Cancer

Your Quick Guide To Facts About Prostate Cancer
By Helen Hecker

Prostate cancer is cancer that grows in the prostate gland. At an advanced age, the risks of surgery for prostate cancer or other more radical treatments may actually be worse than the disease itself. Detected in its earliest stages, prostate cancer can be effectively treated and cured.

About one man in six will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during his lifetime, but only one man in 34 will die of the disease. The main job of the prostate gland is to make seminal fluid, the milky substance that transports sperm. Men, who are younger than 40 years old, are rarely ever diagnosed with prostate cancer.

Additional symptoms that may be associated with this disease are bone pain or tenderness, and abdominal pain. One symptom is the need to urinate frequently, especially at night. Another prostate cancer symptom is difficulty starting urination or holding back urine. One of the most common symptoms is the inability to urinate at all.

If prostate cancer is caught in its earliest stages, most men will not experience any symptoms.

A number of tests may be done to confirm a diagnosis of prostate cancer. The prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test measures the PSA enzyme in your blood for abnormalities. The decision about whether or not to pursue a PSA test should be based on a discussion between you and your doctor.

A urinalysis may indicate if there is blood in the urine. Urine or prostatic fluid cytology may reveal unusual cells. There is a newer test called AMACR that is more sensitive than the PSA test for determining the presence of prostate cancer.

Hormone manipulation is mainly used as a treatment to relieve symptoms in men whose cancer has spread. The approaches to treatment include: waiting to see whether the cancer is growing slowly and not causing any symptoms. Whether radiation is as good as removing the prostate is definitely debatable and the decision about which to choose, if any, can be difficult for some men.

Radiation therapy to the prostate gland is either external or internal, both of which use high-energy rays to kill cancer cells and shrink tumors. Some drugs with numerous side effects are being used to treat advanced prostate cancer, blocking the production of testosterone, called chemical castration; it has the same result as surgical removal of the testes. Treatment options can vary based on the stage of the tumor.

Most men simply want the best treatment they can get but what's important is picking the best treatment for you. Be aware that some men choose natural treatment options and forgo any surgery, radiation or chemotherapy. Recent improvements in surgical procedures have made complications occur less often.

Medicines can be used to adjust the levels of testosterone; called hormonal manipulation. Medications can have many side effects, including hot flashes and loss of sexual desire. Since prostate tumors require testosterone to grow, reducing the testosterone level is used to prevent further growth and spread of the cancer.

Thoroughly discuss your treatment options and concerns with your doctor and other health professionals; it never hurts to get a second or even third opinion or more if necessary. What you can do now is begin to understand what your treatment options are and where you're going to begin.

It's important to get as informed as possible and read all the newest books, ebooks and research available. With the advent of PSA testing, most prostate cancers are found before they cause any symptoms. The outcome of prostate cancer varies greatly; mostly because the disease is found in older men who may have a variety of other complicating diseases or conditions, like cardiac or respiratory disease, or disabilities that immobilize or greatly decrease their activity level.

For more information on prostate cancer treatments and prostate cancer symptoms go to http://www.BestProstateHealthTips.com Helen Hecker R.N.'s website specializing in prostate and prostate cancer tips, advice and resources, including information on prostate tests and natural prostate cancer treatments

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The New Hope for PC Patients Celexa for Prostate Cancer

The New Hope for PC Patients - Celexa for Prostate Cancer
By Milos Pesic

Be informed: Celexa, or its generic name Citalopram is a drug used to treat depression, being a mood elevator, a class of antidepressant called SSRI. Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor, or SSRI, works by increasing the quantity of a certain natural substance located in the brain.

Take note: Celexa is an anti-depression drug. If used outside that prescription, it is important to ask first medical judgment. Even then, it is still considered wise to get medical attention always.

The news is Celexa for prostate cancer. This antidepressant was found to treat hot flashes effectively in men undergoing hormonal therapy for prostate cancer. The October issue of the Mayo Clinic Proceedings (reference date October 11, 2004) had researchers report that:

The antidepressant (Celexa) is an effective medication that reduces the hot flashes of men who are undergoing hormone therapy for prostate cancer

The Paxil, or Paroxetine compound found in Celexa seems to be responsible for diminishing these hot flushes, the researchers have reported. During the duration of the 5 weeks of study, the 18 men who completed the therapy under close monitoring had illustrated hot flashes reduction from 6.2 to 2.5 per day. These hot flash scores, and the frequency multiplied by the severity, reduced in the same period from 10.6 to 3 per day.

So what does this mean? It means that the new label antidepressant drugs, like Celexa could be the next answer for prostate cancer problems. Treating Celexa for prostate cancer could be a viable option.

An older and more common treatment for hot flushes in prostate cancer patients was Megace, generic name Megestrol Acetate. It is a female hormone progesterone derivative, a progestogen. When prostate cancer patients are treated with hormonal theraphy, Megace is employed and most of the times used in junction with Lupron or Zoladex which produces surprisingly effective results of 90% reduction of hot flushes. But there had been isolated reports that the cancer had progressed while having Megace treatment, and it was found out that Megace could have opposite progression of the disease on some patients.

Try suggesting the Celexa for prostate problems to your physician. Celexa for prostate could be your only hope in defeating cancer. But never self-administer drugs such as Celexa (or any of those mentioned) for any reason, always seek professional help. There are dozens of things you need to know and must check before you begin using Celexa for prostate cancer treatment.

Milos Pesic is an expert in the field of Prostate Cancer and runs a highly popular and comprehensive Prostate Cancer web site. For more articles and resources on Prostate Cancer related topics, treatment options and much more visit his site at:

=>http://prostate.need-to-know.net/

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All About Milking the Prostate

All About Milking the Prostate
By Joseph Ducat

Prostate cancer is a disease that affects only men. It is a cancer of the prostrate gland, which is found in the male reproductive tract, and is not present in the female body. All men who are in their fifties or older may be at risk for developing prostate cancer. It is one of the leading causes of death by cancer among men; in the United States, prostate cancer is second only to skin cancer in the number of male fatalities caused every year, according to the National Cancer Institute.

However, prostate cancer often goes undiagnosed in its early stages, mainly because it often does not present any symptoms in those who have it. A lot of men who have prostate cancer never get the therapeutic care that they require, and eventually they die from it. If you are concerned that you may contract prostate cancer in the future, you might want to seek out preventative treatments that can lower your risk of getting it. Let us take a look at one of these possible preventative treatments: prostate milking.

Milking the prostate is a technique of stimulating the prostate gland by hand or implement, causing it to ejaculate seminal fluid. In the hand method, someone must insert their fingers in your rectal area in order to milk the prostate. (It is difficult to milk the prostate by yourself, so it is usually done by a partner or a medical professional.) Milking the prostate is also termed by some people as prostate massage.

Here is how it is done: One person must pull on a latex glove, add a little water-based lube on the fingertips, and carefully insert them into your anus. The fingers must feel inwards and upwards, roughly in the direction of your navel, until they are touching the prostate gland, which feels like a small, round bulb of tissue roughly the size of a walnut. At that point, the prostate gland can be massaged gently by rubbing ones fingers back and forth against its sides, being careful not to rub vigorously on its central area where there are sensitive nerves. After a while, the massage should bring about an ejaculation of seminal fluid, often accompanied by sexual stimulation or orgasm. Ejaculation will not always occur, however.

Milking the prostate is not recommended as a method for cases in which the prostate gland is already diseased or has acute prostatitis, since a massage could cause the disease or infection to spread to other areas of the body.

Learn about The Therapeutic Benefits of Prostate Massage and find related tips and information at http://prostatehealthcare.info

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Stroke Prostate Cancer Laughter and the Melting Mood

Stroke, Prostate Cancer, Laughter and the Melting Mood
By Kerry Wood

My recovery from a stroke suffered in 2001 seemed glacially slow while it was taking place. Now, howeverI feel almost completely recovered, and the difficulties with my right hand and arm and the speech problems are like dim recollections of something that happened decades ago.

I still have difficulty with cuff buttons on starched cuffs. My handwriting is slow. My singing voice is on furlough and recent attempts to throw a ball have been errant embarrassments, but I haven't taken the time to practice in order to restore either of those activities to previous levels of ability. Still, my golf game is pretty much back to where it was. I am exultant at having escaped the permanent serious disabilities that are visited on so many stroke victims.

One persistent symptom is pathological laughter. When I think of something funny or just vaguely silly or ironic, I crack up so badly that I am unable to speak for a minute or two. I never, previous to stroke, exhibited such idiotic laughter. On the plus side, my hysterics can be contagious. In social situations I often manage to get my companions laughing with nearly the same uncontrollability that plagues me. Technically, the symptom may result from lesions in the internal capsule and thalamus, basal ganglion, hypothalamus and ventral pons or from a cortical infarct in the territory supplied by the superior division of the middle cerebral artery.

Such laughter is often associated with weeping. I have not done much blubbering since my stroke, but I did some research on these matters In recent weeks I have discovered in myself new or at least altered emotions. I am not merely getting in touch with my feminine side but being overwhelmed by it. About a month ago I was injected with a time-released dose of Lupron, an activator of female hormones. Each day I also ingest one tablet of Casodex, which along with the injection serves to limit my ordinary testosterone production, thereby shrinking my hyperplastic prostate gland and stopping the development of the malignancy contained therein. The doctors told me I could expect weight gain, loss of muscle mass, diminution of energy, hot flashes, possible development of breast tissue and loss of body hair. Fortunately, the latter two items have not manifested themselves and I dont think Ive had anything like a hot flash. I wouldnt have minded some hair growth in the area of my male pattern baldness, but that too has not occurred. Most surprising have been the changes in my emotional reactions.

For example, I lost control once on the telephone with a long-time friend discussing an ailment that had befallen the family dog. I feared the situation might necessitate euthanasia. To my surprise and shock, I dissolved into uncontrollable sobs. I dont remember weeping so violently since I began to count my age in double digits.

Another time, I had just finished reading a novel by a favorite author. A subplot involved some tense scenes such as the discovery by parents of their high-school-aged sons involvement in a gang rape. I found that I had a strongly empathic response to the mother, who was shamed and devastated and felt that she herself had been attacked and dishonored by her beloved son. I looked down on the father, regarding him as more of a proud, egocentric, disgustingly macho jackass than I would have had I read the book six months ago. Possibly in this fortieth novel that I have read by Robert B. Parker, he has suddenly improved his craft and is handling dialog and description with greater effectiveness. Or maybe I have shed some layers of callus from my emotional response centers and am more susceptible to sentimentality. I have a new understanding for the Player King in Hamlet, who breaks down in his speech about Hecuba and occasions Hamlets O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I! soliloquy Is it not monstrous that this player here,But in a fiction, in a dream of passion,Could force his soul so to his own conceitThat from her working all his visage wand;Tears in his eyes, distraction ins aspect,A broken voice, and his whole function suitingWith forms to his conceit? And all for nothing!For Hecuba?>

And then came the news of my brothera hard-drinking, robust giantfelled by a mysterious ailment that put him in the intensive care unit for a month. Listening to his wife struggling with tears as she told me of his precarious condition, I found myself once again prostrate with sadness. In recent years I have handled the deaths of my father and mother without great distress. Orphanhood, after all, is in store for all of us who live lives of normal length. But the possibility of becoming a 65-year-old only child brought on a period of abject grief that has been relieved slightly by guarded news of Kevins improvement.

Is my recent susceptibility to the lachrymose mood merely an aspect of advancing age, or can I blame my recent health problems and the hormone-releasing cancer treatment. I think of OthelloOf one whose subdued eyes,Albeit unused to the melting mood,Drop tears as fast as the Arabian treesTheir medicinal gum.

On a more cheerful major chord. Chloe, our beloved Wheaton Terrier, seems to have shaken off the apparent pinched nerve that for a while had rendered her nearly catatonic. Shes leaping about and chasing seabirds at the beach just as she used to. Sean is out of intensive care but not out of the woods. He is no longer hallucinating or requiring the almost constant supervision of the hospitals biggest male nurse to keep him from tearing out his IVs and trying to leave the hospital. I will fly down for a visit this Saturday and Sunday when I have a break from radiation treatments.

* * * * * *

Yes, two years after my stroke I was diagnosed with prostate cancer and underwent the treatments mentioned above. Whether the tear floods mentioned above were triggered by cancer treatment or a result of stroke is unimportant. I have had no recurrences of the weepingonly of the laughter. Given a choice, I'll go for laughter every time. And Sean is himself againback at work full-time.

Kerry Michael Wood, retired from a 37-year career as English teacher and textbook co-author, lives in Pacific Grove, California with his wife of 42 years. He taught in public and private schools in California as well as Istanbul, Turkey. He is the author of Past Imperfect, Present Progressive, a memoir. Further information is available at http://www.kerrymwood.com and he can be contacted at kerrywood@redshift.com.

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What Symptoms Should You Watch Out for in Detecting Prostate Cancer?

What Symptoms Should You Watch Out for in Detecting Prostate Cancer?
By Joseph Ducat

How do you know if you are at risk for prostate cancer? Is there a way for you to diagnose it yourself, by noting if prostate cancer symptoms appear? The truth is, prostate cancer is a disease that is still little understood, and nobody really knows what causes it. It is also a disease that rarely presents symptoms, and what symptoms it may cause tend to be indications of other conditions as well--there is no single specific indication of the early stages of prostate cancer.

Prostate cancer usually affects men who are in their fifties or older. It is a type of cancer that only affects men, as the prostrate gland is present only in the male reproductive tract. In the United States it is one of the leading cause of death from cancer in men, second only to skin cancer. Prostate cancer often goes undiagnosed when it is in the early stages of the disease, because it does not present symptoms in most men that contract it. Many men afflicted by it end up not getting therapeutic care and eventually die of prostate cancer, due to the difficulty of detecting it.

There are a number of symptoms that may indicate prostate cancer in its early stages: the need to urinate frequently, especially at night; having difficulty starting urination or maintaining a steady flow of urine; feeling a burning sensation or pain when urinating; experiencing pain when ejaculating; having difficulty in getting an erection; discovering blood in the urine or semen. However, having one or more of these symptoms does not provide conclusive evidence that one has early-stage prostate cancer. These symptoms can also be caused by several other diseases or conditions. If you have one or more of these symptoms, seek out medical consultation to find out what exactly is the cause of them.

There are a number of symptoms that can present themselves in the later stages of prostate cancer, when the cancer tends to migrate to other areas of the body, such as the bones. The most common symptom of advanced prostate cancer is experiencing pain in ones bones, particularly the bones of the spine, pelvis, and ribs. Prostate cancer that has spread to the spinal column may bring about the constriction of the spinal cord, causing further symptoms, like incontinence or weakness in the legs.

Learn about various ways of preventing prostate cancer. Check out my tips and articles at http://prostatehealthcare.info

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Zapping Cancer

Zapping Cancer
By Jonza Kriss

Illustration: treating drug-resistant tumor cells with electric pulsesWhen tumor cells resistant to chemotheraputic drugs were subjected to very low intensity electrical stimulation, the cells acquired sensitivity to the anti-cancer drug doxorubicin. This effect has the potential to reform treatment especially for malignant tumors that are refractory to drug treatment, while possibly reducing side effects in all patients undergoing chemotherapy.

Chemotherapy resistance is a major obstacle in the treatment of various cancers erally, cancer patients refractory to chemotherapy are resistant to multiple anti-tumor drugs. Genn in vitro (i.e., outside of the living organism) experimental model in cells termed multidrug resistance (MDR), is often due to drug extrusion mechanisms (meaning that drugs that enter the cell are transported back out, and thus are prevented from exerting their effect on the cell). One such drug extrusion mechanism is mediated by overexpression of the P-glycoprotein (P-gp; the human version of the protein encoded by the MDR1 gene), a drug-transporter glycoprotein associated with the cell or plasma membrane (which encloses the cell's cytoplasm) with a wide variety of drug substrates. Cells that overexpress the MDR1 gene are, hence, resistant to many drugs.

In a study led by Luca Cucullo and Damir Janigro from the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine in Ohio that was recently published by the open access journal, BioMed Central, tumor cells that overexpress the MDR1 gene product were shown to lose their resistance to anti-tumor drugs by electrical stimulation. In vitro rodent and human tumor cells refractory to anti-tumor drugs were exposed to continuous, very low intensity (7.5 mA [microamps) 50 Hertz AC (alternating current) pulses, with ten-second intervals, for a three day period. After electrical stimulation, parallel cultures of cells were treated with increasing concentrations of the chemotherapeutic drug doxorubicin, or with various controls, for three hours, following which cell viability was assessed. The researchers discovered that the cells became sensitive to the anti-cancer drug doxorubicin. The researchers concluded that treatment of the drug-resistant tumor cells with low frequency, low intensity AC stimulation in vitro drastically enhances chemotherapeutic efficacy of doxorubicin, a substrate for the MDR1 glycoprotein drug transporter.

Further investigation demonstrated that electrical stimulation not only decreases levels of the MDR1 glycoprotein transporter, but also changes the localization of the MDR1 glycoprotein from close to the plasma membrane to the cytosol (the fluid portion of the cytoplasm). This altered expression of the MDR1 glycoprotein is believed to have caused the loss of the cell's drug extrusion ability, which it mediates. Unable to extrude the drug, the cells succumbed to its effect, essentially acquiring sensitivity to the drug, and were killed.

A fuller understanding of the way electrical pulses affect drug-resistant tumors will require further research. However, this technique may be exploited as part of new cancer treatment protocols, such as coupling electrical stimulation with chemotherapy to treat tumors otherwise refractory to drugs, as well as possibly enabling reduction in the amount of chemotheraputic medication used, and thereby in unpleasant side-effects.

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Prostate Cancer

Prostate Cancer Foundation Homepage - Prostate Cancer Foundation
Prostate cancer information, prostate cancer symptoms, prostate cancer treatments. The Prostate Cancer Foundation is the world's largest philanthropic ...www.prostatecancerfoundation.org/

WebMD Prostate Cancer Center: Treatments, Symptoms, Detection ...
Prostate cancer is diagnosed in an estimated 80% of men who reach age 80. Find in-depth prostate cancer information here on prevention.www.webmd.com/prostate-cancer/default.htm

Prostate Cancer Home Page - National Cancer Institute
Information about prostate cancer treatment, prevention, genetics, causes, screening, clinical trials, research and statistics from the National Cancer ...www.nci.nih.gov/cancertopics/types/prostate

Prostate cancer - MayoClinic.com
Prostate cancer is cancer of the small walnut-shaped gland in males that ... But diagnosis and treatment of prostate cancer have gotten much better in ...www.mayoclinic.com/health/prostate-cancer/DS00043 -