Thursday, May 13, 2010

Prostate Cancer Survival Explained To Laypeople

By Laura Kelsey

Prostate cancer survival depends on the stage in which the patient is diagnosed to have the cancer and also upon other factors like his race, his family cancer history, and his life style and dietary habits. The age at which the cancer strikes the patient, by and large mostly determines prostate cancer life expectancy.

It is a well established axiom that the earlier the cancer is detected, the treatment options are very clear and the survival possibilities are very encouraging. Those way even the spreading of the infection to other parts of the body (metastasis). When once the metastasis starts, the survival chances are very slim.

Diagnosis when done efficiently and in appropriate time enhances the chances of prostrate cancer survival. There are two main categories of diagnosis called staging and scaling. In staging, severity of the disease in indicated by four stages A, B, C, and D. Stage A denotes containment of cancer in prostate only, In stage B cancer cells have been formed but are within the prostate area. In stage C, process of metastasis has started and in Stage 4, other parties of the body are inn the grip of the cancer cells, process of spreading cancer to other parts of the body is complete.

In the scaling system Gleason scaling is popular for evaluating the progress of the prostate cancer. Gleason system uses a scale running from 2 to 10. If the Gleason score is 6 or less, the cancer cells are not likely to spread. A Gleason score of 7 is indicative of aggressive cell formation. Any Gleason score from 8 to 10 indicates metastasis.

To the question whether there are any known methods for prevention of the occurrence of prostate cancer, the health professionals answered in the negative. However they agree that appropriate diet choice as well as lifestyle changes can mitigate the risk. The increased intake of pure oxygen by suitable exercising in open air is conducive to risk reduction and starting a low-fat diet rich in fruits, vegetables can also help.

Different treatment options are available to prolong the prostate cancer life expectancy. But the main difficulty is normally it takes 10 years to have a detailed study over a large population of patients, which is impractical. Hence Medical Research teams had to take recourse or retrospective studies, which are not reliable.

Old men around 70 present another difficult pattern. As the prostate cancer is a very slow growing one, those elderly men's chances of succumbing to other ailments become a distinct possibility. Hence, slow growing prostate cancer might not be a big threat to them at all.

Prostate cancer survival is an intricate issue. The triggering of cancer mechanism is governed by multiple factors like food habits, and lifestyle. Prostate cancer life expectancy, on the other hand, is dictated by the treatment options and the age.

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