Health Network News

Prostate cancer prognosis signifies the analytical methods to identify the root causes of the reasons why people are victims to the prostate cancer, the regimen of medicines to be taken by the patients and monitoring of the progress of cure by health professionals by conducting various tests - in other words, a systematic approach to the mitigation of the ravages of the disease.

The main solace about the disease is that it is not lethal. In a study coauthored by Peter Albertson of the University of Connecticut Health Center in Farmington, it is stated: “Because prostate cancer usually grows slowly, many tiny cancers probably do not need treatment. These are the men who should consider active surveillance”.

Some significant progress has been made since 1990’s by Australian health care researchers that there is a significant contribution of dietary habits to the onset and growth of prostate cancer among people. Those who consume relatively high fat, grilled or processed meats, when consumed on a daily basis is conducive to the onset of prostate cancer. They also concluded after extensive studies that consumption of vegetables like cauliflower; broccoli, cabbage, and sprouts reduce/eliminate the risk of begetting prostate cancer.

Europeans and especially Americans, due to their rich lifestyle and equally rich food habits are prone to the attack of prostate cancer in comparison to the South Asians, where the quality of life is yet to improve as the nations are in the development stage still. It is estimated that in USA, the chances of men getting the prostate cancer are 16%, so tests for prostate cancer would be highly recommended.

A cheerful news item in the Journal of the American Medical Association states that low grade prostrate cancer patients have a much reduced level of risk of succumbing to the disease up to even 20 years after prostate cancer prognosis.

In general, elderly men above 50 are prone to this disease. So it is better to know about the symptoms: passing urine with difficulty, complete inability to urinate, passing urine often especially at night, weak or sporadic urine flow, pain while in urinating, blood in the urine and pain the lower back, hips and thighs. Men with such symptoms should take tests for prostate cancer, as these symptoms are common for non-cancerous benign prostate enlargement also.

Genes and the heredity are very important factors in passing of this disease to the successive generations. Hence those families, where father or sibling had a history of cancer are advised to note down this factor of cancer incidence as 1 to 4 to 1 to 7 , when compared to 1 to 13 of normal persons.

As such, for those whose family history is positive to the tumors, tests for prostate cancer should be started right earnest from the age of 40 onwards. Blood tests for prostate-specific antigen (PSA) and Digital rectal exams (DRE) have to be conducted at frequent intervals. Prostate cancer prognosis depends entirely on the advancements made in the medical testing field for the same.