Understanding Prostate Cancer: Diagnosis and Stages

Being told that you have prostate cancer can be a frightening experience. When you are told of your condition, it's common to be so overwhelmed that you neglect to ask important questions, only to think of them once you've gotten home. Understanding your illness is often the first step on the road to recovery. Here's what you need to know about your diagnosis and how the cancer is staged:

1.Diagnosing Stages

Once a man has been diagnosed with prostate cancer, his physician will perform one or more additional tests to determine the stage of cancer. These tests may include a digital rectal examination, a blood test, an MRI of the prostate or skeleton, a CT of the pelvis and abdomen, or a surgical procedure to examine lymph nodes. While not all men will need each test, most men will undergo at least one of these tests in order for their physician to better stage the cancer.

2.Stage I

If you are diagnosed with stage I prostate cancer, this means that your cancer is microscopic and only located in the prostate. Your cancer will not be large enough for your doctor to manipulate digitally. Additionally, the cancer will not be able to be detected on any digital imaging of the prostate gland. Stage I cancer of the prostate will be discovered by a needle biopsy or in tissue that is removed during other surgical procedures.

3.Stage II

In stage II prostate cancer, the cancer is still located solely in the prostate. The cancer may be found in one-half or less of one lobe of the prostate, in more than one-half of one lobe or in opposite sides of the prostate gland. As in stage I prostate cancer, stage II cancers cannot be felt during digital rectal exams, nor will the cancer be visible on any type of imaging.

4.Stage III

In stage III prostate cancer, the cancer has spread outside of the prostate to nearby tissues. The prostate specific antigen, or PSA, score can be at any level and the Gleason score will range between two and ten. Your doctor may choose to treat you with external-beam radiation therapy, hormone therapy or suggest you for a clinical trial of new therapies. Alternatively, your doctor may suggest no treatment at all and, instead, adopt a watch and see approach to your cancer.

5.Stage IV

When your prostate cancer has metastasized, or spread, to other areas of your body, you are diagnosed with stage IV cancer. Your cancer may be found in your bones, liver, lungs or lymph nodes. Stage IV prostate cancer, like other cancers that have reached the fourth stage, is considered to be the most serious. Without immediate treatment, this type of cancer will likely prove fatal. Your doctor may prescribe chemotherapy, radiation therapy, hormone therapy or a radical prostatectomy combined with other therapies.

The better you understand your diagnosis and the stage of prostate cancer that has been discovered, the better equipped you will be to partner with your oncologist to aggressively tackle your disease. If you have been diagnosed with prostate cancer, do not hesitate to approach your doctor with any questions that you may have. Your gained knowledge may just save your life.

John Martin writes articles for several health testing sites and recommends having your prostate test in Dallas Tx done at one of these centers.

Symptoms of Colon Cancer

Colon cancer could be a common malignance of alimentary canal system and has nice threaten to our health. In early stage, carcinoma has no obvious symptoms or simply has the symptoms before lesion cancerous amendment, whereas as time goes by, a series of symptoms and physical signs would seem.

(1) Abdominal pain and symptoms of organic process tracts: the overwhelming majority of carcinoma patients have totally different degree of abdominal pain or abdominal discomforts, like abdominal hidden pain, left aspect abdominal distention, nausea, vomiting, loss of craving so on. once food feeding, the symptoms could exasperate and generally could company with intervallic diarrhoea or constipation, that square measure simply confused with the common diseases of right lower quadrant, like chronic rubor, ileocecal infectious disease, ileocecal junction segmental rubor or malignant neoplastic disease. it's typically believed that the symptoms of rightward abdomen carcinoma manifest as pain within the half higher than navel; whereas symptoms of leftward abdomen carcinoma manifest as pain within the half underneath t navel. If cancer tumour penetrates internal organ wall, it's going to cause native inflammatory adhesion or native symptom once the formation of chronic perforation. the placement of pain is simply the place wherever tumour localizes.

(2) Abdominal mass: it's sometimes irregular and in exhausting texture; its surfaces manifest nodosity; throughout early stage of colon cancer and colon cancer, abdomen mass encompasses a bound activity and should cause pain even press it slightly.

(3) Changes of movement and stool shape: this is often attributable to ulceration or infection caused by tumour sphacelus. as a result of poisonous substance stimulates colon to vary gut evacuation habit: increase or cut back the numbers for gut evacuation; alternate prevalence of diarrhoea and constipation, or prevalence of abdominal intestinal colic before gut evacuation and at that time, it might alleviate. If the position of tumour is underneath or simply localizes body part, then some body part irritation could seem, like porta bearing-down pain, troublesome laxation. Dejecture usually manifests as shapeless like pasty, and is mixed with mucous secretion and bloody pus. Sometimes, great deal of blood content could mislead the diagnosing as infectious disease, enteritis, hurt of haemorrhoid so on.

(4)Anaemia and absorption of chronic toxins: once the surface of tumour sphacelus seems ulceration, the colon could suffer from unceasingly capillary hemorrhage. Blood being mixed with dejecture could fail to catch the eye of carcinoma patients. However, anaemia, emaciation, weakness or weight loss is also caused attributable to chronic blood loss, poisonous substance absorption or deficiency disease. Advanced stage carcinoma patients could suffer from lump, megalohepatia, ascites, symptom, cachexy so on. If tumour penetrates abdomen or bladder or different organ and cause internal fistula, then similar symptoms shall be conjointly caused.

Symptoms of Cervical Cancer

Cervical cancer is one amongst the common malignant cancers among females. it's the sole cancer that with identified cause. that's human papillomavirus HPV which may unfold directly through dermal contact ANd has an incubation lasting for quite 10 years. Cervical cancer is preventable and detectable. Learning concerning cervical willcer symptoms and bear screening frequently can facilitate discover cervical cancer and take up treatment as early as attainable.

Signs of cervical cancer:

1. Cervical erosion

Cervical erosion: cervical cancer patients sometimes ar attended with cervical erosion, and severe cervical erosion is each main issue and symptom of cervical cancer.

2. Contact bleeding

Contact bleeding: contact bleeding is that the most distinguished sign of cervical cancer, which may be found within the style of colporrhagia in 70%~80% of cervical cancer patients. It typically seems with contemporary blood in vaginal secretion throughout sexual activities, medical specialty examinations, or creating nice effort once loosening stools.

3. Irregular vaginal bleeding

Irregular vaginal bleeding: emission amount return to previous girls years when biological time. As there'll be no symptom like stomach ache or waist pain, and therefore the bleeding quantity is sometimes low, it's simply unheeded. However, irregular vaginal bleeding is early sign of cervical cancer, that has known as several elder patients' attention to travel to hospital and therefore helped them with early designation and treatment.

4. Pain

Pain: pain sometimes happens within the lower abdomen or lumbar-sacral space, generally within the higher abdomen, thigh and enarthrosis. It becomes severer in emission amount, shitting or sexual activities. particularly once the inflammation spreads backwards to the utero-sacral ligament or on rock bottom of broad ligament, chronic inflammation of animal tissue next to womb is made and cervical cardinal ligament thickens, the pain can become even severer. once touched within the cervix, patients can feel pain within the bone fossa and therefore the lumbar-sacral space, whereas another patients will even have symptoms like nausea.

5. Increasing vaginal secretion

Increasing of vaginal secretion: Clinically, concerning 75%~85% of patients have varied degrees of vaginal secretion increase. Most of them seem as increasing of leucorrhoea, that later is attended with smell and color changes. as a result of the stimulation of the lesion, cervical glands of the uterus becomes active in its secretion operate and manufacture mucoid leucorrhoea. The abnormalities of the leucorrhoea, as well as quantity increasing and characteristic ever-changing, ar early signs of cervical cancer.

Experts from trendy Modern Cancer Hospital Guangzhou inform that, if you have got on top of symptoms, visit the hospital timely for examination and treatment.

Fat men die of prostate cancer

Adipose tissue surrounding the prostate gland of men with obesity, creates favorable conditions for the progression of prostate cancer.

What is the prostate gland
The prostate gland - is musculo-glandular organ located below the bladder and surrounding the initial portion of the urethra. The main function of the prostate is to produce secretions, which is part of semen. Ducts of the prostate glands open into the urethra.

Prostate cancer
In the early stages of prostate cancer does not manifest itself. Complaints are associated with tumor spread and metastasis. At the stage the only manifestation of the lack of symptoms, allowing the disease to suspect, is to increase blood levels of prostate specific antigen (PSA). As prevention of prostate cancer for all men should conduct an annual PSA test beginning at age 45.

By increasing the size of the tumor shows the following symptoms:

• Frequent urination
• Difficulty urinating
• Urinary incontinence
• urge to urinate.

The essence of the study

Scientists have received samples of adipose tissue surrounding the prostate gland in men with benign prostatic hyperplasia, prostate cancer and prostate cancer. Regardless of prostate disease in men with obesity , there is increased activity of genes in fat cells. These genes encode proteins involved in the immune response, inflammation, growth, reproduction, and cell death.

Increase in the activity of genes leads to inhibition of the immune response and stimulates the formation of new blood vessels, which creates favorable conditions for the progression of prostate cancer. The study's authors hope that the findings will more carefully selected treatments for patients with obesity.

Cause Breast Cancer?

Free From Harm compiled a collection of information from experts about the connection between dairy and breast cancer. Some highlights:

• "Casein, which makes up 87% of cow's milk protein, promoted all stages of the cancer process," says Dr. T. Colin Campbell, author of the well-regarded, seminal China Study, summing up his relevant findings.
• "[S]everal epidemiological studies have indicated a relationship between dairy consumption and breast cancer risk in pre-menopausal women (Outwater, 1997)." -Breast Cancer Fund
• "It appears that when individuals do not have the correct enzymes to metabolize many of the hormones naturally found in any type of cow's milk, a glass of milk can flood the body with excess estrogen. This raises the risk of developing or accelerating the growth of existing breast cancer." -Susan Wadia-Ells, Founding Director of Knowbreastcancer.net
• Professor Jane Plant advocates changing from dairy to soy products to prevent breast cancer, noting that "even in Hiroshima, the chances of contracting breast cancer are half that of western nations. Only when Chinese and Japanese women move to Europe or the United States does their chance of contracting breast cancer dramatically increase," as Free From Harm summarized.
• "While scientists are hard at work searching for specific breast cancer-fighting compounds, the safest approach is to apply what we already know: Diets that are highest in a variety of plant foods and stay away from heavy oils, meat, and dairy products, help prevent a great many diseases." -Dr. Neal M. Bernard
• 'Some dairy products, such as whole milk and many types of cheese, have a relatively high saturated fat content, which may increase risk. Moreover, milk products may contain contaminants such as pesticides, which have carcinogenic potential, and growth factors such as insulin-like growth factor I, which have been shown to promote breast cancer cell growth.' -The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Some nutritionists confirm the doctors' findings. One of them, Phil Richards, writes that 'the connection between casein and cancer was so profound [in experiments on rats] that the scientists could literally turn cancer growth on and off in the laboratory animals, like a light switch, simply by altering the level of casein protein in their diets." Specifically, "[c]onsuming dairy products is linked to an increased risk for breast cancer as dairy products are high in fat, animal protein, and hormones, each of which increases cancer risk. Since the 1980′s, study after study has linked dairy consumption to a high incidence of breast and other cancers.'

Part of the problem with dairy is the things that come out of cows because of the way factory farmers treat them, as The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition quote above suggests. Dairy producers inject cows with a growth hormone to increase their milk production by a factor of ten. That milk then contains pus, bacteria, and blood because of the infections cows are prone to from their living conditions and from producing far more milk than they are meant to. Obviously these are not healthy things for us to drink.

Susan G. Komen for the Cure sounds a more conservative note than the researchers cited above: 'data from the Nurses' Health Study II found women who ate a lot of high-fat dairy products (like whole milk or butter) were at higher risk of premenopausal breast cancer," it admits, but nevertheless asserts that "[m]ost studies have found no link between consuming dairy products and breast cancer in premenopausal women." The site also claims that studies "have found no link between dairy product intake and postmenopausal breast cancer risk.'

By Piper Hoffman @care2.com

Type 2 diabetes boosts death risk from breast cancer

Sunday Sept 16, 2012 (foodconsumer.org) -- A new study in Cancer Causes and Control suggests that being type 2 diabetic potentially increases risk of death from breast cancer. Because having type 2 diabetes also means to have diabetes treatment, diabetes treatment can potentially be linked to higher risk for breast cancer death.

M. T. Redaniel of University of Bristol in Bristol, UK and colleagues conducted the case-control study and found women with breast cancer who also suffered type 2 diabetes mellitus were 40 percent more likely to die from all causes, compared with those with breast cancer only.

The association, which was derived already after adjustment for age, period, region, smoking status, body mass index, alcohol drinking and deprivation, was based on data from 52,657 women with type 2 diabetes diagnosed between 1987 and 2007 and 30,210 randomly selected women without type 2 diabetes.

This association can be easily understood. Type 2 diabetes mellitus patients have insulin insensitivity or insulin resistance and tend to produce more insulin than people without diabetes type 2 do. When insulin is produced, insulin-like growth factor-1 is also produced, which is known to promote cancer growth.

Type 2 diabetes mellitus was also associated with 29 percent increased overall risk for developing breast cancer. This association was attenuated after adjustment for other factors like age, period of cohort entry, region, and BMI. That is, women with type 2 diabetes were 12 percent more likely than those without the disease to develop breast cancer.

Diabetes treatments may make some difference in the risk of developing breast cancer. Compared with sulfonylurea, metformin monotherapy and insulin therapy were associated with 4 and 33 percent increased risk of developing breast cancer among women with diabetes. From the study report abstract, it is unknown whether using sulfonylurea would increase risk of breast cancer.

Of all the associations, the one between being diabetic and risk of breast cancer was the strongest, suggesting that it is important to maintaining adequate glycemic control alongside cancer treatment, the researchers concluded.

The findings suggest that type 2 diabetes may increase risk of developing breast cancer and death from the disease.

By David Liu, PHD

Breast Cancer Symptoms

In the initial stages, the breast cancer has no obvious symptoms and it vary in individuals from lumps to swelling and changes in the skin.

A lump too small which is felt does not cause any unusual changes and it is unnoticed.

However, in many cases appearance of new lump or a mass is the first sign noticed. The lump may be hard to touch with uneven edges and they are painless.

But there are cases the lump is very tender, round edged and soft. More lumps are painless.

Breast Cancer Symptoms are:
Swelling of part of the breast or all parts
Skin irritation in the breast.
Nipple pain,
Nipple begins to turn inward (inverted) slowly
Breast pain.

Appearances of changes in the nipple like redness, scaly formation,
thickening of the nipple.
A nipple discharge (bloody or clear fluid)
Changes in the skin of the breast like thickening.
Arm pit with lymph nodes or a mass or lump

It is essential to note that these symptoms always an indication for a breast cancer. But in some cases the above symptoms may be a symptom of non-cancerous conditions like in an infectious cyst.

In the early stages of the breast cancer, the cancerous tissue formation is hidden inside the tissues and it is always not possible to see the cancer by naked eyes. The changes happen in the breast may not be always cancer. A lump may come by an infection and it may disappear. The changes in the skin surface of the breast may be due to sunburn. A rash may be by an allergy. But all these symptoms to be decided for a benign or malignant type of growth.