If your doctor tells you that you have prostate cancer, the news can be devastating. No cancer is good but a diagnosis of prostate cancer feels even worse because treatment can lead to being incontinent or even impotent.

What Is Prostate Cancer?

As you might expect, prostate cancer is a tumor that grows in or on our prostate. If you don’t know what your prostate is, it’s a gland that straddles your urethra. It helps make semen, which carries your sperm from your testicles when you ejaculate.

What Causes Prostate Cancer?

Doctors do not know what causes prostate cancer. However, they have identified some risk factors. The strongest of these is age as the risk of having prostate cancer rapidly rises after age 50. For that matter, nearly two out of three prostate cancers are found in men over the age of 65.

Another important risk factor for prostate cancer is ethnicity. Prostate cancer is most common in northwestern Europe, Australia, North America and on the Caribbean islands. It is not so common in Asia, Africa, Central America, and South America. No one knows why this is the case.

The third greatest risk factor for prostate cancer is family history, as it tends to run in some families. If you have a father or brother with prostate cancer, this just about doubles your risk of developing it. This suggests that there may be a genetic or inherited factor in prostate cancer.

There are also some inherited genes that tend to raise the risk of prostate cancer but probably account for just a small number of cases.

Finally, there are diet and obesity. Men whose diet consists of a lot of red meat or high-fat dairy products may have a higher risk of getting prostate cancer. Obese men also have a higher risk of developing prostate cancer.

What Stage Is The Prostate Cancer?

Doctors divide prostate cancer into four stages, Stage I, II, III and IV. This will be determined by the cancer – whether it affects just part of the prostate or the whole prostate – and whether it has spread to other places in your body. So, if you are diagnosed with prostate cancer, the important question becomes, what stage is it? If you are fortunate, the cancer will be at Stage I, which is the easiest to treat. The worst possible news would be that the cancer is at Stage IV.

How you decide about your treatment is a complex process. As you will see there are a number of different treatments available, depending on the stage of your prostate cancer. You may find it helpful to talk with your doctors, family, friends and other men who have had to make a similar decision. Also, there are a number of support groups that can provide you with more information.

The Four Stages Of Prostate Cancer


Stage I Prostate Cancer
In this stage, the cancer is in your prostate only.

Stage II Prostate Cancer
In Stage II, the cancer is more serious than Stage I but has still not spread outside the prostate.

Stage III Prostate Cancer
In Stage III, the cancer has spread beyond the outer layer of the prostate to nearby tissues. It may also be found in your seminal vesicles.

Stage IV Prostate Cancer
In Stage IV, the cancer has spread (metastasized) to your lymph nodes near or far from your prostate or to other parts of your body such as your bladder, rectum, bones, liver or lungs.

Treatments For Prostate Cancer By Stage

According to the American Cancer Society, here are the possible treatments for prostate cancer by stage.

Stage I Prostate Cancer Treatments

Treatment for stage I prostate cancer may include the following:

  • Watchful waiting
  • Radical prostatectomy (removing the prostate), usually with pelvic lymphadenectomy (removing one or more lymph nodes), with or without radiation therapy after surgery. It may be possible to remove the prostate without damaging nerves that are necessary for an erection.
  • External-beam radiation therapy
  • Implant radiation therapy
  • A clinical trial of high-intensity focused ultrasound
  • A clinical trial of radiation therapy
  • A clinical trial testing new types of treatment

Stage II Prostate Cancer Treatments

Treatment for stage II prostate cancer may include the following:

  • Radical prostatectomy (removing the prostate), usually with pelvic lymphadenectomy (removing one or more lymph nodes), with or without radiation therapy after surgery. It may be possible to remove the prostate without damaging nerves that are necessary for an erection.
  • Watchful waiting
  • External-beam radiation therapy with or without hormone therapy
  • Implant radiation therapy
  • A clinical trial of radiation therapy with or without hormone therapy
  • A clinical trial of ultrasound-guided cryosurgery
  • A clinical trial of hormone therapy followed by radical prostatectomy (removal of the prostate)
  • A clinical trial testing new types of treatment

Stage III Prostate Cancer Treatments

Treatment for stage III prostate cancer may include the following:

  • External-beam radiation therapy with or without hormone therapy
  • Hormone therapy
  • Radical prostatectomy (removing the prostate), usually with pelvic lymphadenectomy (removing one or more lymph nodes), with or without radiation therapy after surgery
  • Watchful waiting
  • Radiation therapy, hormone therapy, or transurethral resection of the prostate as palliative therapy to relieve symptoms caused by the cancer
  • A clinical trial of radiation therapy
  • A clinical trial of ultrasound -guided cryosurgery
  • A clinical trial testing new types of treatment

Stage IV Prostate Cancer Treatments

Treatment for stage IV prostate cancer may include the following:

  • Hormone therapy
  • External-beam radiation therapy with or without hormone therapy
  • Radiation therapy or transurethral resection of the prostate as palliative therapy to relieve symptoms caused by the cancer
  • Watchful waiting
  • A clinical trial of radical prostatectomy (removal of the prostate) with orchiectomy (removal of the testicles)

Receiving a diagnosis of prostate cancer is certainly not good news. The upside, as you have seen, is that there are many treatment options available, depending on the stage of your cancer, as well as many clinical trials. This means that as every year goes by, more and more of the clinical trials become accepted treatment options. Even when the news is bad, there is a good chance you will be able to beat prostate cancer and live for many more years.

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