What is Prostate Cancer?
Prostate cancer is the most common type of cancer in more aged men after lung cancer. It is more likely to occur after the age of 65-70. The risk is 1/10,000 under the age of 39. It is 1/103 at the age of 40-59. In the age of 60-79, this rate was found to be 1/8.
The exact cause of prostate cancer is unknown; however, it has been determined that genetic factors are important.
All prostatic diseases can be divided into three:
- Benign prostatic hyperplasia (prostate gland enlargement)
- Prostatitis (inflammation of the prostate)
- Prostate adenocarcinoma (prostate cancer)
1st and 3rd types are related to each other. In other words, prostate gland enlargement is likely to turn into prostate cancer. If left untreated during this period, it is more likely to develop into cancer.
What Are The Symptoms of Prostate Cancer?
Prostate gland enlargement complaints include urinary frequency and difficulty. Urinary tract infection may also include similar complaints. For this reason, people with these types of symptoms should also be investigated for prostate cancer in addition to urinary tract infection, taking into account age, genetics, and the duration of the complaint.
It has been reported that androgenic hormone support, which is secreted at an advanced or very early age, may cause prostate enlargement in advanced ages. Cell growth is detected in the secretory parts of the prostate in 50% of men aged 51-60 years and 90% of those over 70 years of age.
As the prostate gland enlarges, it narrows the urethra in diameter. Therefore, it creates resistance against the outflow of urine. Muscles increase pressure and contraction to facilitate urine outflow. This impairs the storage function of the bladder. In prostate gland enlargement, there is not always a shortage of urine. The relationship between urine and prostate gland enlargement is proportional to where the prostate gland enlargement is in the prostate and how much it forces the urethra. This condition causes kidney disorders in 10-15% of patients.
Diagnosis Of Prostate Cancer and PSA Testing
In 2001, 198,000 men in the United States were diagnosed with prostate cancer. 31,800 of these people died, the others were cured.
A hand examination is performed before a diagnosis of prostate cancer (tumors that are too small to be detected by a hand examination may also be cancer). The first scans performed in suspicious cases on palpation are ultrasonography, PSA (prostate-specific antigen) investigation, and fPSA (free PSA), respectively.
PSA has an 80% success rate in the early detection of prostate cancers. Although benign, the PSA value was above 4 ng/ml in 28% of prostate gland enlargements. PSA value is above 4 ng/ml in all prostate inflammations. As a result of a general study, PSA increased by 0.3 ng/ml for every 1 gram of prostate enlargement. In prostate cancer, this increase was approximately ten times. If the PSA is between 4-10 ng/ml, diagnosis by biopsy is necessary for advanced ages. On the other hand, 40-50% of the cancer was detected in men with a blood weight of more than 10 ng/ml.
PSA is complex with proteases in the blood. 5-45% of it is seen as free in the blood. If the fPSA/PSA ratio is high, the cancer diagnosis is more distant. It has been reported that 19-64% of men with a PSA ratio of 0.14-0.28 did not undergo unnecessary biopsy procedures. If the PSA level is between 4-10 ng/ml, this value is called the gray zone. Since it does not give complete information about cancer formation, fPSA is effective here. This information has also been approved by the FDA.
