Prostate cancer is one of the top three killer cancers in the United States. And based on several studies, 1 out 6 American man contracts prostate cancer in his lifetime. The mortality rate is lower of course at 1 death for every 34 men who get it. However, such lower mortality rates are not a cause for celebration. There are plenty of reasons why men should avoid prostate cancer. In fact, everyone should strive to avoid contracting such deadly diseases like cancers of any type.

Earliest Stage (PSA)

Prostate cancer can often be found in its earliest stage through conducting tests on the amount of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) in a persons blood. PSA is a substance produced by the normal prostate gland and is mostly found in the semen. However, a small amount of PSA can also be found in the blood and can be very useful in determining as to whether or not there are abnormalities going on in the prostate of a man. The normal level of PSA in the bloodstream in men is under 4ng/mL (nanograms per milliliter). Abnormalities in the prostate could cause the level of PSA in the blood to rise and where a man has 4 to 10 ng/mL of PSA in his blood, he has 1 in 4 chances of having prostate cancer.

The bad news is, if a man has more than 10ng/ml of PSA in his blood, he has 50% chances of having prostate cancer. Note that having high PSA is not a guarantee that you have prostate cancer. There are rare instance where men having PSA of below 4ng/ml are also found to have prostate cancer. In certain case, PSA in the blood increases because a man is taking certain drugs, has infection in the prostate or is getting older. Remember that old age could also affect the functions of the prostate and would sometimes cause an increase in the PSA in the blood.

DRE

Another way of determining if a man has prostate cancer is through a digital rectal exam (DRE). The prostate is a walnut size gland located in front of the rectum and therefore it would be easy for a doctor to conduct an examination by feeling for bumps and hard places in the prostate. Most doctors recommend that men, specially those who are already in their 60’s or even those who are younger but have a family history of prostate cancer, take this test yearly. Routine check ups every year could be very effective in finding prostate cancers in its early and treatable stages. Any type of cancer found at an early stage has a very good prognosis of successful treatment, so it is best to find them early and treat them accordingly.

As early as the 1990’s it has become more common in men to have the tests to find possible prostate cancer and arrest its growth. Since then, death related to prostate cancer has dramatically dropped. However, there are still men who are afraid of taking such a test for some fear that it will affect their manhood. The good news is there is nothing to fear because these tests have no effect, whatsoever, on our virility.

P.S. If you found this page useful, please consider linking to it. Simply copy and paste the code below into your web site (Ctrl+C to copy) It will look like this:
Prostate Cancer | How to Detect it