subject: The Most Common Prostate Cancer Symptom [print this page] Prostate problems caused by benign overgrown tissue generally affect men over 50 but, because abnormal cancer cells can also be present for years without the patient being any the wiser, most diagnoses of prostate cancer are made on men in their seventies. It should also be remembered that, over the following five years, many of these men will die from other unrelated medical conditions.
The most common prostate cancer symptom tends to be pain and difficulty when urinating, and this is often accompanied by erectile dysfunction.
However these can also be caused by the overgrowth of tissue due to benign prostatic hyperplasia and most men of 70 and over will have some degree of prostatic enlargement, the age group in which cancerous cells are also most likely to be discovered there. BPH and cancer are not automatically linked and, whilst some men may contract both diseases, it does not necessarily follow that a diagnosis of BPH will inevitably lead to cancer.
If you have a close relative with prostate or breast cancer, then you may be more at risk of contracting the disease as they may be the result of a faulty gene. Having a high-fat diet and being overweight also make a man more vulnerable.
Because an early diagnosis is essential to the prognosis and effective treatment, you should always visit your healthcare professional if you have any of the following as they can often be the first obvious prostate cancer symptom:
Possible prostate cancer signs and symptoms that you may experience could include having to rush to the toilet to pass urine; problems with passing urine at all, urinating more frequently than usual - this can be particularly noticeable at night; difficulty in getting the stream started; a weak or intermittent stream; a 'dribbling' before or after urinating; pain when urinating or blood in the urine or semen or erectile dysfunction.
Whilst worldwide survival rates have risen dramatically over the past 30 years, once the cancer has spread beyond the prostate, these rates fall and survival is greatly influenced by the stage of the disease at diagnosis.
If the disease remains confined to the prostate, nine out of ten men will live for a further five or more years but survival rates are lowest for the five out of a hundred who are diagnosed after it has spread. On average, just under half of patients with metastatic prostate cancer will survive for less than 22 months after the original diagnosis and about a third will reach the five year marker.
