Prostate cancer

Prostate Cancer is the only one of the four disorders is potentially life-threatening. One of the most worrying aspects is that many prostate cancers develop without men experiencing ANY SYMPTOMS.

Every year, around 18,700 Australian men are diagnosed and more than 3,000 die of the disease, making prostate cancer the second largest cause of male cancer deaths, after lung cancer. Almost one man in eleven will develop prostate cancer during his lifetime.

Prostate cancer occurs when some of the cells of the prostate reproduce far more rapidly than in a normal prostate, causing a swelling or tumour. However, unlike BPH, prostate cancer cells eventually break out of the prostate and invade distant parts of the body, particularly the bones and lymph nodes, producing secondary tumours, a process known as metastasis. Once the cancer escapes from the prostate, treatment is possible but “cure” becomes impossible.

Prostate cancer is usually one of the slower growing cancers. In the past, it was most frequently encountered in men over 70, and many of those men died of other causes before their prostate cancer could kill them. This led to the old saying “most men die with, not of, prostate cancer”. However, that is certainly is not true today. Three developments have changed things considerably:

• Men are living longer, giving the cancer more time to spread beyond the prostate, with potentially fatal consequences.
• More men in their early sixties, fifties and even forties are being detected with prostate cancer. Earlier on-set, combined with the greater male life expectancy, means those cancers have more time to spread and become life-threatening unless diagnosed and treated.
• Prostate cancer in younger men often tends to be more aggressive and hence more life-threatening within a shorter time.

Provided appropriate treatment commences while the cancer is still confined to the prostate gland, it is possible to "cure" it. The possibility of cure is the main reason why early diagnosis is critical.

All men should be aware of their risk of the disease and consider being tested for it regularly from age 50 onwards, or from 40 onwards if there is a family history of prostate cancer.