Prostate cancer - Health Hotline

Ebony, July, 2003

OTHER than skin cancer, it is the most common type of cancer found in American men, and the second leading cause of cancer death, exceeded only by lung cancer. In fact, this year alone, prostate cancer will victimize about 221,000 men in the United States, and will kill about 29,000.

While 1 in 6 men will get prostate cancer, it occurs almost 70 percent more often in African-American men as it does in White men, and African-American men are twice as likely to die.

The good news is that cancer of the prostate is one of the easiest to treat if detected early. Symtoms include a weak or interrupted flow of urine, difficulty urinating or urinating frequently (especially at night), pain or burning when you urinate, blood in the urine and nagging pain in the back, hips or pelvis.

For those diagnosed with prostate cancer, there are a number of treatments, including an approach called "watchful waiting" when the cancer hasn't spread outside the prostate. This approach consists of regular exams to monitor the cancer's progress without any actual treatment.

When watchful waiting is not an option, four kinds of treatment are commonly used--surgery to remove the cancer, radiation therapy to kill the cancer cells with high-dose x-rays or other high-energy rays, hormone therapy to stop the cancer cells from growing with the use of hormones and biological therapy to fight the cancer by using your body's immune system.

One possible risk factor that can be changed is diet, with men opting for meals low in fat and high in vegetables, fruits and grains. Tomatoes, grapefruit and watermelon are rich in lycopene, an antioxidant that helps prevent damage to DNA and may help lower prostate cancer risk.

Regular physical activity and maintaining a healthy weight may help reduce risk. Prostate cancer seems to run in some families, suggesting an inherited or genetic factor. Between 1989 and 1992, the number of prostate cancer diagnoses increased dramatically, probably due to the increased use of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) blood test screenings, which detects levels of a protein that is produced by prostate cells, including both normal and cancerous cells.

New procedures in the treatment of prostate cancer include implanting radioactive seeds--called brachytherapy--into cancerous prostate glands. In some cases, about 100 radioactive seeds, each smaller than a rice grain, are placed into tumors inside the prostate gland to destroy cancer cells. The seeds treat early stages of prostate cancer in a way that, for some patients, may be preferred over the usual methods of surgical removal of the gland or seven weeks of external radiation. However, improper placement of the seeds can lead to such complications as impotence, incontinence, rectal bleeding and other side effects.

Notables like Nelson Mandela, Quincy Jones, Sidney Poitier and famed neurosurgeon Ben Carson have successfully fought prostate cancer, and are living proof that you don't have to die from the ailment.