How do doctors check for prostate cancer?
PROSTATE cancer claims thousands of lives in the UK each year - so is it time YOU got a check-up?
There are certain warning signs you need to be on the look out for, and if you spot one you need to book in for a test.
What is prostate cancer?
Prostate cancer is the most common cancer for UK men, and there are around 52,000 new patients each year.
The prostate is a small gland found in the male pelvis, which helps to produce semen.
It sits around the urethra - the tube a bloke pees and ejaculates from - between the penis and the bladder.
The main point of the prostate is to produce the fluid which mixes with sperm to create semen - making it pretty vital for reproduction.
But, like all organs in the body, it can be invaded by cancer - when cells in the gland start to grow uncontrollably.
The chances of developing cancer increase with age, with men over the age of 50 most at risk.
Often there will be no signs for years, and it typically develops slowly.
How can I check for signs of prostate cancer?
In most cases, prostate cancer doesn't have any symptoms until the growth is big enough to put pressure on the urethra.
Symptoms include:
- Needing to urinate more often, especially at night
- Needing to rush to the toilet
- Difficulty in starting to pee
- Weak flow
- Straining and taking a long time while peeing
- Feeling that your bladder hasn't emptied fully
Many men's prostates get larger as they age because of non-cancerous conditions called prostate enlargement and benign prostatic hyperplasia.
These two conditions are more common than prostate cancer - but that doesn't mean any symptoms should be ignored.
The signs the cancer could have spread include bone, back or testicular pain, loss of appetite and unexplained weight loss.
Men who are black, overweight, over 50 or have a family history of prostate cancer are most at risk.
How do doctors test for prostate cancer?
There is no single test for prostate cancer, so your GP is your first point of call - and they will discuss the options with you.
Diagnosis is likely to involve:
- Giving a urine sample
- A blood test to measure your prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels
- And a digital rectal examination
PSA is a protein produced by the prostate gland - which all men have.
Your levels increase with age and prostate cancer can, but doesn't always, increase production of PSA.
But this isn't a specific test for prostate cancer - 65 per cent of blokes with raised PSA levels don't have cancer, while 15 per cent of those with tumours get a false negative.
Because of these factors, there is currently no screening programme for prostate cancer here in Britain - so it's up to you to arrange tests, if you think you could be at risk.
For a definitive diagnosis, some blokes are referred to hospital for a transrectal ultrasound-guided biopsy (TRUS).
The procedure can be painful, but it allows docs to take a tissue sample from your prostate.
But this test can miss one in five cancers - so you may need a follow-up test if your symptoms persist.
Thankfully, thousands of men could avoid painful invasive cancer tests thanks to a new prostate scan.
The MRI technique works in just over a quarter of cases, a study has found.
The MRI scan is also 12 per cent better at picking up deadly tumours and 13 per cent less likely to flag up a harmless cancer as needing treatment.
Some prostate cancers are low-risk and do not need to be treated with radiotherapy, or operated on.
But the disease does take 11,819 British lives a year, so it needs to be taken seriously.
Doctors will study samples of your tissue to see how likely the cancerous cells are to spread - and help you decide which treatment is most appropriate for you.
