Check Myself For Prostate Cancer, 5 Warning Signs

Prostate cancer is one of the most more prevalent cancers among men. Prostate cancer is the second-leading cause of cancer deaths for men in the United States. Prostate cancer develops and affects the walnut-shaped prostate glands of men, which is responsible for producing semen and transporting sperm.

The prostate is a small organ that rests under the urinary bladder and in front of the rectum. It is normal for the size of the prostate to enlarge with age. It is about the size of a walnut for youger men. The prostate produces a fluid, which formed part of the semen where the fluid feeds the sperm.

Prostate cancer progress very slowly and there are various stages of prostate cancer. It is absolutely important to check and recognise the early warning signs of prostate cancer because it aids in getting treated earlier.

The 5 Warning Signs of Prostate Cancer Are:

1. Difficulty or Frequent In Urination

There may be a feel of rush but there is nothing to come out or the difficulty in stopping the urination. You could also feel you still need to urinate, even after finishing. Signs of weak and interuppted urine flow are other warning signs.

2. Blood in Semen or Urine

This sign is not so common, but in some cases, the blood can be seen in semen or the urine. This condition is also known as hematuria. As cancer develops in the prostate gland, it can grow and press onto the urethra, surrounding glands, and blood vessels. When this happened, body structure can become blocked, which leads to bloody urine or semen.

3. Erectile Problem or Dysfunction

Another signs and symptoms to watch out for when it comes to prostate cancer is erectile dysfunction. Prostate cancer can caused one to have  difficulty in achieving an erection, or to hold the erection. Erectile problems are usually caused due to atherosclerosis. However, it can also be caused because of prostate cancer interfering with ejaculation or erections.

4. Painful And Discomfort

An enlarged prostate will cause discomfort or pain while sitting. If the cancer has spread beyond the prostate gland, patient might also experience swelling in the lower back and pain in the back or hips. Any person having prostate cancer can also feel a lot of pain during urination or ejaculation. There are other causes behind the pain during urination but one of the causes of pain during urinating is because of the urinary tract infection. It is one of the classic signs of prostate cancer.

5. Leakage or Dribbling Urine

This one of the early warning sign of prostate cancer. It can be treated as the male urinary inconsistency version. This normally happens in a small but noticeable volume. It will cause longer waiting time to stop the dribbling or leakage, whic is one of the telltale signs of prostate cancer. This is likely due to the symptoms of overactive bladder or BPH.

Check yourself for prostate cancer based on the 5 warning signs to recognise your problems early and for the better treatment. If you experience some of these 5 early warning signs of prostate cancer, then it is best to check with your doctor readily. As prostate cancer is slow progression, the harm can be controlled by choosing the right treatment choice at the suitable time.

7 Prostate Cancer Treatments Up To Date

Updated here are the seven (7) prostate cancer treatments:
1. The Gold-silica Nanoshell Infusion Treatment
2. Anti-sMIC Immunotherapy Antibody Therapy
3. Prostate Gel Spacer
4. Ultra-hypofractionated Stereotactic Body Radiotherapy (SBRT)
5. Olaparib
6. MKC8866
7. Focal Cryotherapy

The Gold-silica Nanoshell Infusion Treatment

Gold-silica nanoshell infusion is a cancer therapy invented at Rice University that allows for a focused therapy that treats the cancer while sparing the rest of the prostate, thus preserving a patient's quality of life by reducing unwanted side effects, which could include erectile dysfunction and/or the leakage of urine.

The treatment uses tiny silica spheres with a thin outer layer of gold, are called nanoshells. They are about 50 times smaller than a red blood cell, which Halas invented them at Rice in 1997. The cancer cells are destroyed by heating nanoshells with a low-power near-infrared laser. This method of destroying cancer cells could pass harmlessly through healthy tissue.
 

Anti-sMIC Immunotherapy Antibody Therapy

Dr. Jennifer Wu, Ph.D., Northwestern University and her research team have been investigating the mechanisms driving prostate cancer progression and developing novel treatments and models to combat metastasis for the past 15 years.

they discovered that cancer cells are able to bypass immune cells and survive. During the early stage of cancer development, prostate cells will start to express MIC. The primary function of MIC is to affect the immune cells. Cancer cells release a soluble form of MIC, called sMIC to bypass immune surveillance. Thus, Anti-sMIC Immunotherapy Antibody Therapy is developed to target sMIC. Currently, Dr. Wu and her colleagues are working toward bringing this anti-sMIC antibody from pre-clinical to clinical use in humans.

Prostate Cancer Gel Spacer

Radiotherapy for prostate cancer treament can be highly effective, it uses high-energy X-rays are targeted at the prostate, killing cancer cells and preventing them from spreading. Nevertheless, due to the close proximity, nearby healthy organs can be affected resulting in side effects including rectal bleeding, erectile dysfunction, bowel and bladder damage caused by Radiaotherapy.

Prostate gel spacer is found to be able to reduces bowel and bladder damage. The liquid gel spacer increases the distance between the prostate and rectum to reduce the amount of radiation absorbed during treatment. The gel once injected will sets within seconds, with this method the side effects of radiotherapy can be reduced by 70%.

Ultra-hypofractionated Stereotactic Body Radiotherapy (SBRT)

Ultra-hypofractionated stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) is expected to reduce prostate cancer treatment time from two months to two weeks. SBRT deliver five higher doses of radiation to patients over one to two weeks. This technique allows scientists to target tumours to sub-millimetre precision.

More accuracy brings down the chance of damaging surrounding healthy tissue, which can lead to urinary and rectal side effects such as more frequent or urgent urination and diarrhoea. To deliver curative treatment over fewer days mean that men would get the equivalent benefit from their radiotherapy while having to spend less time in hospital.

Researchers are still awaiting data on long-term side-effects and overall efficacy.

Olaparib Prostate Cancer

Olaparib could become a revolutionary treatment for prostate cancer - the first genetically targeted drug for fighting the disease. Olaparib, also called Lynparza, acts by targeting and killing cancer cells with defective genetic code, while sparing normal cells with healthy DNA. However, the may not works for every men. Patients can be tested to see if they have the genetic errors that the drug can attack - faulty DNA repair genes including BRCA1 and BRCA2.

This precision approach means the patients most likely to benefit will be treated, sparing them potential side-effects from other drugs.

MKC8866

The drug MKC8866 is a small molecule belonging to a group of substances called hydroxy-aryl-aldehydes that has been developed by the originally US-based biotech company MannKind Corporation. MKC8866 counteracts the growth of prostate cancer tumors which interferes with a kind of chain reaction and stop the chain reaction that is linked with the cells' stress response.

MKC8866 was formulated for other purposes but exhibited that it inhibits the signal pathway and oncoprotein activation. Thus, it likewise inhibits the development of prostate cancer tumors both in-vitro cell culture and in-vivo, in mouse prostate cancer models.

Focal Cryotherapy for Prostate Cancer 

Focal cryotherapy uses ablation, the use of extreme temperatures (up to -40 degree celsius) to destroy the prostate cancer. In focal ablation, the area of the prostate that contains the most severe cancer is targeted, instead of treating the entire prostate gland. Focal Cryotherapy also reduces erectile dysfunction and leakage of urine side effects.

Focal cryotherapy allowed magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to be performed at the same time, thus, permitting very specific targeting and also real-time views of the results.