subject: Why Prostate Cancer Research Is So Valuable [print this page] Whether you have been directly affected by prostate cancer or not, you may be interested to know that there is ongoing prostate cancer research to help prevent, diagnose and treat prostate cancer. The hope is that in the future there will be a way to completely eradicate prostate cancer, but the only way to do that is through continual prostate cancer research.
Some of the current prostate cancer research that is on-going deals with genetics that are associated with prostate cancer, prevention, early detection, diagnosis, staging and treatment of Prostate cancer. One of the prostate cancer research studies deals with targeting the genes linked to prostate cancer. This study will help scientists understand how prostate cancer develops. It will also help to see the genetic changes that lead to prostate cancer. Once these things are discovered, medicines can then be designed to target those genetic changes. Identifying these genes through prostate cancer research could help to discover men that are at higher risk and encourage those highrisk individuals to receive intensive screening to catch prostate cancer early on or give them medications to prevent it.
There are on-going studies that involve what types of foods and vitamins may help slow prostate cancer or lower the risk of getting prostate cancer. Doctors agree that PSA testing is a good way to diagnose prostate cancer early, but it is not perfect. Prostate cancer research is creating new tumor marker blood tests that may be more accurate in detecting prostate cancer early on. There are studies involving urine testing, as well. Prostate cancer research is helping to find a newer approach to measuring the blood flow within the gland. This may make biopsies more accurate, targeting a specific part of the gland to be sampled from. Cancer staging plays a major role in deciding treatment plans and options for cancer patients.
Ongoing prostate cancer research is helping to develop new MRI and PET scans with less radiation that can target lymph nodes and other parts of the body that may contain cancer. There is always active prostate cancer research to develop new treatments and to improve upon the standard cancer treatments already available. Such changes include radiation therapy, improved surgery with less lasting side effects, nutrition and lifestyle changes, improvements in hormone therapies and chemotherapies, vaccines for boosting the bodys immune response to prostate cancer and preventing or treating the spread of prostate cancer to the bones. Prostate cancer research is the only way to improve upon what we already know and how we currently treat prostate cancer patients.
