(Newswire.net — August 18, 2016) Salt Lake City, Utah — Despite advances in detection and treatment, prostate cancer remains a pressing public health issue. It’s important to understand where it comes from and what it actually does. Here are just a few things you may not have known about prostate cancer.
1. It has a high survival rate.
While prostate cancer can be as fatal as any other type of cancer, the general prognosis is good, especially with a good treatment plan from a provider like urocare London. According to the American Cancer Society, the five-year survival rate for prostate cancer is almost 100 percent. The 15-year survival rate is 95 percent.
2. It runs in families.
As with many medical conditions, you’re more at risk of prostate cancer if you have a family history with it. If any of your immediate male relatives have been diagnosed with prostate cancer, you have a one in three chance of being diagnosed with it as well.
3. You can test for it at any time.
You may have heard that prostate cancer is difficult to detect in its early stages, but that hasn’t been true for awhile. New medical breakthroughs have come in the form of cancer screenings for Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA). If you suspect that you may have or contract prostate cancer in the future, ask your doctor about PSA.
4. Many famous men have beaten it.
From celebrities to politicians, there have been many well-known cases of prostate cancer. Even more importantly, men have beaten it. Robert De Niro hasn’t let the condition slow him down one bit, and senators like Mike Crapo have actually used their diagnoses as a platform for change. Crapo has become a public advocate for early cancer screenings.
5. It isn’t an “old person” disease.
While it’s true that two-thirds of prostate cancer patients are over the age of 65, prostate cancer can strike at any time. Men in their 20s and 30s have been diagnosed with it. Scientists aren’t sure why or how this happens, but they think it might have something to do with the condition running in families.
6. Some doctors don’t want to call it cancer.
Nothing will tie your stomach in knots like the word “cancer.” Some doctors have argued that prostate cancer should be renamed or re-branded so that diagnoses won’t automatically cause their patients to panic, despair or make radical life changes.
7. You might not need surgery.
Some forms of prostate cancer are so slow-growing that a person can live their entire life with the condition before suffering any symptoms. In these cases, it’s better not to have surgery and risk complications. Aggressive treatment can cause a problem where there wasn’t one before.
8. Lifestyle changes might help you prevent it.
To be clear, cancer can strike anyone, including healthy people who eat right and exercise regularly. But researchers at Harvard’s School of Public Health have found evidence that good nutrition and fitness habits can help prevent prostate cancer. They can also slow the spread of cancerous cells after the condition has already been diagnosed.
These are just a few things that may surprise you about prostate cancer. Awareness is the first step towards eradicating it for good, so use this knowledge as a weapon against cancer in all forms.