THE SEARCH IS ON FOR MORE ACCURATE METHODS TO DIAGNOSE PROSTATE CANCERS IN MEN

The prostate is a gland found only in men, as most know. It is just below the bladder, in front of the rectum and is about the size of a walnut. The tube that carries urine (the urethra) runs through the prostate. Most doctors believe that prostate cancer begins with very small changes in the size and shape of the prostate gland cells.

Prostate cancer is the most common type of cancer found in American men, other than skin cancer. The American Cancer Society estimates that there will be about 218,890 new cases of prostate cancer in the United States in 2007. About 27,050 men will die of this disease this year. Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in men. Lung cancer is the first. While 1 man in 6 will get prostate cancer during his lifetime, only 1 man in 35 will die of this disease. More than 2 million men in the United States who have had prostate cancer at some point are still alive today. The death rate for prostate cancer is going down, and the disease is being found earlier as well. The Prostate Specific Antigen blood test is the most widely used test to show any signs of early cancers. The test measures levels of a protein produced by the prostate and has enabled doctors to diagnose more than 80% of these cancers before they spread to lymph nodes, bones and other tissues. 

The PSA is not always as accurate as everyone wants it to be. But there is further hope with the new test called proPSA which discriminates between benign indications and active cancer. This is in preliminary stages of receiving approval from the FDA, but is expected to receive that approval. There is much more to this burgeoning research and it is believed the heavy toll of prostate cancers in men will be a thing of the past in the years ahead.