Who Is At Risk For Prostate Cancer?

Prostate gland is most important organ in each male, therefore prostate cancer is most awful of male cancers. One man in ten among those diseased with cancers die from prostate cancer. Mortality in men under 45 is not significant – just 3 cases per million, instead, in men over 75 the mortality increases 400 times and cancer is found in 130 cases per 100 000 men.

In Russia prostate cancer occurs two times more rarely than in the world. However, the number increases each year. The risks are different for different males. Besides age, an important role plays heredity, for example, in Asia and Eastern Europe is not so widely-spread than in USA and Scandinavia.

In some families risks are much higher which means that men whose relatives had prostate cancer should start examinations much earlier than in 75 years old. For instance, a man may make PSA test which helps to detect prostate specific antigen. However, remember that this method provides many false positive and many false-negative results and is informative only in combination with other methods.

Such factors as bad habits and bad ecological situation increase risks for prostate cancer. And most sad finding is that in men with high sexual activity the prostate cancer occurs more frequently.

Not a single male would be happy to hear the diagnosis “prostate cancer” but this diagnosis not always is a death sentence. Doctor and patient should know how would behave crazy tumor. Will it grow rapidly so that it would require last extreme measures? Or it grows slowly which allows to use medical treatment which helps to lower the risks? The answer may depend on condition of tumor vessels.

Like any tissue it requires nutrition and oxygen, therefore on the blood supply of tumor influences on its development. Studies made by several American cancer centers on more than 500 men with prostate cancer found an important regularity.

Aggressive and deadly tumors of prostate gland usually have thin irregular and primitively arranged vascular netting while slowly growing tumors it has a common look. The probability of metastasis or death is six times higher if vessels are thicker and 17 times higher in case of extra irregular vascular netting.

Prostate Cancer: Face To Face With Horrible Diagnosis

If you are diagnosed with prostate cancer you should know how this disease is progressing and you should understand medical terminology. This information should help you to take serious decisions when chosing appropriate methods of treatment.

Course of the disease.

In most cases cancer of the prostate is slow-growing. In fact, aged men do not need treatment because tumor does not influence life time and the disease courses without symptoms.

Condition connected with slight change of shape and size of cells of prostate is called prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia (PIN) and a half of men over 50 years are diagnosed with it. PIN is considered precancerous disease.

Rate of progression prostate cancer: Gleason staging system.

Gleason staging system is used to help to evaluate the prognosis of cancer of the prostate.

• Biopsy. Tissue samples of prostate tumor are taken. Obtained material is going in laboratory for a microscopic examination.


• In laboratory every sample assigns a grade from 1 to 5: one means that sample has only healthy cells and five means the sample has pathological cells.


• The two grades of two most specific tumor samples are added together to get a Gleason score (from 2 to 10). Higher Gleason score means a worse prognosis.

Prostate cancer stages.

Stages do characterize where cancer have spreaded. Doctor needs this information to choose treatment. To define cancer stage the next examinations can be made:

• Digital rectal examination
• Blood tests
• Bone scans
• Computerized tomography
• Magnetic resonance tomography
• Biopsy of prostate and lymphatic glands

There are two systems of describing prostate cancer stages – Whitmore-Jewett staging

and TNM.

Whitmore-Jewett staging system

In this case to describe stage of disease are used letters of A, B, C, D:

A – the tumor has microscopic size and it is not detectable when palpation

B – the tumor or lump are felt (without metastasis)

C – the tumor with metastasis spreaded to the organs located near prostate

D – the tumor with great metastasis spreaded to lymphatic glands and other organs

TNM staging system

Cancer stages can be described also in TNM system. TNM stands for Tumor, Nodes, Metastases.

T – characterises process of primary tumor

T1 – the tumor is not detectable while visual examination and on X-ray picture. Cancer cells are presented in tissue samples taken during prostate hyperplasia operation or during biopsy.

T1a – cancer cells are detected in less than 5% of tissue that was removed. Gleason score is less than 7.

T1b - cancer cells are detected in more than 5% of tissue that was removed. Gleason score is more than 7.

T1c – cancer cells are detected in tissues taken during biopsy (performed due to an elevated serum PSA)

T2 – the tumor can be felt but it does not spread outside capsule covering prostate.

T2a – the tumor is in less than 50% of one part of prostate.

T2b – the tumor is in more than 50% of one part of prostate.

T2c – the tumor is in both parts of prostate.

T3 – the tumor is spreaded on other organs including seminal vescile.

T3a – the tumor is spreaded on other organs but not in seminal vescile.

T3b – the tunor is spereaded on seminal vescile.

T4 – the tumor is spreaded on other organs near prostate, for example, on rectum.

To detect metastasis to other organs it is necessary to make some additional examinations. Prostate cancer often does metastasis to lymphatics glands, bones, lungs and other organs.

To describe metastasis marks of M and N are used.

N – characterises spreading of tumor on lymphatic glands.

Nx – it is not clear if lymphatic glands are invaded or not.

N0 – the tumor is not found in lymphatic glands.

N1 – the tumor is found in one lymphatic gland in small pelvis caverna and it has size of not more than 2 sm.

N2 - the tumor is found in one lymphatic gland in small pelvis caverna. It has size of more than 2 cm but less than 5 cm. The other variant is when the tumor is found in several lymphatic glands in small pelvis caverna but tumors have size of less than 5 cm.

N3 – at least one tumor in lymphatic glands has a size of more than 5 cm.

M – describes spreading of tumor in other organs.

Mx – it is not clear if there is metastasis to other organs.

M0 – metastasis are detected only in prostate and in the nearest lymphatic glands.

M1 – the tumor does metastasis to lymphatic glands beyond small pelvis and\or into other organs (bones, lungs, livers and brain).

Prognosis for prostate cancer.

Almost all cancerous growths of prostate (91%) are detected before they spread beyond prostate. If cancer is diagnosed being at this stage, in 99% of cases patients can live at least 5 years. But the prognosis of survival exacerbates when the tumor did metastasis to other organs.

The second detecting of prostate cancer after a year or more of treatment is called recurrence. Cancer can recur in prostate (even if it was removed) and in other organs including bones. To treat recurescence can be used methods different from those that were used for primary tumor treatment.