In 2001 Cancer withh 23% was the 2nd leading cause of death behind Heart Disease with 29%.
Prostrate Cancer with 6% of cancer deaths was #4 behind Lung 28%, Colin 10% and Breast 8%.
Anatomy:
The prostate gland is about the size of a walnut. It's located just below the bladder, and it surrounds the urethra. This is a tube that carries urine and semen out of the body. The prostate is partly muscular and partly glandular. It has tubes (ducts) that open into the prostatic part of the urethra. It's made up of 3 lobes: a middle lobe, left lobe, and right lobe.
The prostate produces and contains fluid that forms part of semen, the substance emitted during ejaculation as part of the male sexual response.
Diagnosis:
Prostate-Specific Antigen (PSA) blood test. It should be less than 6.4 ng/mL
Enlarged prostrate detected in a Digital Rectal Exam (DRE).
or suspicious findings on an MRI.
Benign prostatic hyperplasia is the increase in size of the prostate, without the presence of malignancy. It is much more common with advancing age.
Biopsy:
A biopsy is performed when one of the above indicate the possibility of cancer.
It involves the removal of tiny tissue samples from the prostate gland to be examined for cancer cells by a pathologist.
Modern techniques frequently utilize MRI-ultrasound fusion imaging to guide the needle precisely to suspicious areas, significantly improving detection accuracy compared to older "blind" systematic sampling.
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