By Lee C. Drinkard, M.D., FACP
DHR Health Oncology Institute
Prostate cancer is an abnormal growth of cells causing tumors that start in the prostate gland. The prostate gland is a gland that helps sperm flow; it sits between the bladder and the tube, called the urethra, that carries urine. The tumor starts inside the gland and can spread outside of the gland into surrounding organs and throughout the body, including the bones and lungs.
Prostate cancer is the most common cause of cancer in men in the United States. An American male has a 12% risk of developing prostate cancer in his lifetime. Prostate cancer risk increases with age. Prostate cancer occurs in only 2% of men 20-30 years old but appears in up to 73% of men over 80.
Men of all races get prostate cancer. The risk of getting prostate cancer is highest for African American men and lower in white and Hispanic men. Other risk factors for prostate cancer include a family history of prostate cancer or other cancers and a diet high in animal fat but low in vegetables.
The good news is that, although prostate cancer is a common cancer in men, it is not always fatal; although up to 73% of men can get prostate cancer, only 2% of men die because of it. More good news is that there also is a blood test available from your doctor called the PSA (prostate-specific antigen) that can help detect prostate cancer early to potentially cure it.
Recommendations for testing or screening men for prostate cancer with the PSA test change over time. Your doctor is familiar with these recommendations, and this would be a great conversation to start having with him or her around age 50.
If the PSA is high, your doctor may recommend a particular x-ray called an MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) or a sampling of the gland (called a biopsy).
If you get prostate cancer, you and your doctor may decide to follow it periodically without any treatment to see if it turns more aggressive in the future. Treatments for more aggressive cancers include surgery and/or radiation therapy. Depending on the severity of the cancer, physicians add–to surgery or radiation therapy–hormone-blocking drugs to shrink the cancer and keep it from coming back.
Since prostate cancer starts in a male gland, it grows with testosterone, the male hormone. Decreasing testosterone or blocking it shrinks or kills prostate cancer.
The primary way to treat more advanced cancers, where the goal is to control it when you cannot cure it, is by blocking or suppressing testosterone with pills or periodic injections. Chemotherapy is used with these other treatments for very aggressive cancers or cancers that no longer respond to testosterone-blocking drugs.
The American Cancer Society has a good web page, full of information on prostate cancer: https://www.cancer.org/cancer/prostate-cancer.html. For more information or to speak to one of our experts, please call DHR Health Oncology Institute at 956-362-2250.
