About 1 in 6 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during lifetime. For those men who are diagnosed with prostate cancer at a very early stage, they might not require to undergo any kind of treatment. However, aggressive therapy becomes an absolute must for those who are diagnosed late or by that time their cancer has begun to spread beyond the prostrate.

According to a recent research program, men that have been diagnosed with locally advanced prostate cancer can live for a considerable long period of time if they undertake recurrent sessions of hormone suppression therapy. In this case, the drug hormones are known to block the male hormones, testosterone, which is known to aid the cancer in spreading over several regions.

The research program which was carried out in the France subcontinent studied the case history of as many as 970 patients who were exposed to hormone-suppression therapy along with radiation for a span stretching from six months to three years. Result from the study had shown that men who were assigned to the therapy for a shorter span were more likely to die within a five year span.

However, many experts also hold the view that hormone suppression drugs comes with a lot of side-effects, which include reduced sex drive, insomnia, and hot flashes. Moreover, patients having small tumor in their prostate region may not need to undergo extensive sessions of hormone suppression. Last but not the least; men must consult with their doctors about the potential benefits and risks involved in hormone-suppression therapy before opt for an individualized treatment that will benefit them the most.

Note : Prostate Cancer Key Statistics

1) Prostate Cancer is the second most common cancer in American men.

2) About 1 in 6 men will be will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during his lifetime.

3) It is estimated that around one hundred and ninety thousand prostate cancer cases will be diagnosed in US alone in 2009.

4) Only 1 in 35 men diagnosed with prostate cancer will die of the disease. Currently there are more than 2 million men in US diagnosed with prostate cancer and are still alive.

Researchers reveal that a blood test that is able to characterize prostate tumor by its unique genetic pattern may help to determine whether a man has prostate cancer. Managing Director of the Dana-Faber Cancer Institute in Boston, Robert Ross explains that, recent studies have successfully generated a genetic tool that out perform the basic PSA testing in determine prostate cancer.

In basic testing, PSA levels count the protein known as prostate-specific antigen generated by the cells in the prostate. If the PSA level is high, it may be a sign of cancer.

The new test which monitors the activity of 6 genes responsible for prostate cancer was introduced at the yearly conference of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.

According to Ross, men with high PSA lever will have to go through biopsy. Even then, about 60% of these tests show negative result. Every year more than 1 million men undergo the anxiety and pain due to biopsies. The new genetic test can aid the patients to avoid any such discomforting feelings because of biopsies.

The scientists’ experiment started with 392 pair of genes associated with cancer by using a device known as gene chip. They collected blood samples of 76 males diagnosed with prostate cancer and 76 healthy males. They then extracted 6 genes which dominated prostate cancer. This method was repeated again for evaluation on blood samples of 128 males diagnosed with prostate cancer and 84 males without any disease.

Result from the experiment shows that the 6-gene test correctly identified 86% of men with prostate cancer while PSA only manage to identify 70%. When the PSA test along with gene test was used together for diagnosis, the result was perfectly satisfactory. Scientist are now working on further study to see if the new gene test can correctly predicts biopsy results in a 1,000 male.

Prostrate cancer is a threat to a lot of men. The majority of prostate cancer is “pussycat” prostate cancer. This type of prostate cancer is mild and would not cause major problems throughout the patient’s life. Another type of prostate cancer referred to as “tigers” cancer. This type of prostate cancer is more aggressive and can even lead to death.

One of the major problem faces by many doctors is working out the type of prostate cancer a patient suffers. According to a recent research by British Journal of Cancer Research, small bubbles of fat that passes through the urine can actually determine if a prostate cancer is something mild or fatal, thus help in determining which type of treatment should be implemented.

Men suffering from pussycat cancers often undergo unnecessary test, medication and treatment which result in certain side effects such as loss of sex drive and impotence. This site effects can be prevented if there is a reliable test to determine whether a tumor is aggressive.

Up until today, medics have used varying levels of protein, including PSA or what is referred to as prostate specific antigen to know more about the cancer. But this technique turns out to be problematic.

According to the researchers, a fatty capsule referred to as exosomes, coming from the tumor, may contain a lot of information about the make up and the genetic of prostate cancer. Various genes can be turned off and on in serious and dormant cases of prostate cancer.

Dr. Jonas Nilsson, an author at the University Medical Centre in Amsterdam said that the medicine world hopes that this would be a new approach in knowing more about prostate cancer. Meanwhile, Dr Lesley Walker, director of cancer information at Cancer Research UK commented that such technique could help to find new biomarkers that can tell if a tumor would lead to aggressive prostate or not.

It is still a long run to diagnose and treat aggressive prostate cancer at a much earlier stage. One of the most common symptoms of this type of cancer is difficulty in urination, thus it is important to have your condition checked by doctor regularly if you have such symptom.

Based on a recent study, diet low in fat and high in vegetables and fruits might be good in treating and preventing prostate cancer. In the research, scientists intended to determine whether alterations in diet may reduce the risk of prostate cancer.

Robert W.-L. Ma and his partner K Chapman from University of New South Wales (UNSW) worked on the ground of fact related to dietary solutions to avoid prostate cancer and in taking care of the prostate cancer patients.

Prostate cancer patients’ diet, as per the scientists’ recommendations, should rule out inclusion of high energy products, meat and dairy products. Instead, they should focus on low fat diet which is high in fruits and vegetables in addition to calcium consumption. The scientists recommended cauliflower, tomatoes, broccoli, green tea in addition to vitamin E and selenium in order to prevent prostate cancer. They also pointed out that there are proven connections between highly processed meats, milk products and fats in relation to prostate cancer.

The scientists who contribute their result of study to the Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics said that the study shown an alteration in diet can possibly avoid the risk of prostate cancer though it is not fully established.  The recommended dietary therapy for prostate cancer patients in order to get them direct involve in the treatment process.

A study has shown that the current prostate cancer screening process made to obese men is more like to miss tumors. This finding was discovered when researchers made a study to over 500 men, which resulted for obese men to have low level of prostate specific antigen or PSA even if they have abnormal prostate findings.

Researchers test PSA level to screen prostate cancer because PSA level often rise before any prostate cancer’s symptoms are developed. It is possible to have a normal PSA level yet still to have prostate cancer, although this situation is uncommon. As a general rule, higher a man’s PSA level, more likely the man will have prostate cancer.

The current findings simply suggests that obese men has relatively low PSA level and thus some cancer cannot be detected right away or worse will be missed. Dr. Freedland, the senior investigator on the study, said that excessive blood volume is most likely the reason why obese men have lower PSA level, which may also resulted into a dilution effect.

Therefore, Freedland suggest that dilution effect should be taken into consideration when interpreting PSA levels in obese man so that prostate cancer in obese men can be detected more accurately.

According to studies, overweight men have a PSA value of 5 percent lower compared to those in normal weight. Mildly obese on the other hand have 14 percent difference; while for moderately and severely obese men, the difference was 29 percent lower. With the current data presented, researchers suggest that the PSA levels used to recommend for biopsy should be adjusted according to a man’s level of obesity.

The researchers at the Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center have discovered that prostate cancers actually originates from one single cell in the prostate and spread to other part of the body.

Cancer is due to mutation of DNA, which cause a variation in DNA base. Cancer mutations can also be in the form of copy number changes, wherein a person has an abnormal copy of genes. Those cells that do not have normal copy of genes will probably grow uncontrollably and eventually spread to different parts of the body through a process called metastasis and form a new cancerous site.

Researchers did a study for 14 years to 30 men that died from metastatic prostate cancer. Samples are taken from both the prostate and metastatic sites, dissected and analyzed. Researchers then found out and conclude that mostly of the metastatic cancer cells if not all are merely clones of one single cell from the prostate.

Because of this new finding, scientists are hoping that they can use it in determining the specific genomic features of the death causing primary cancer cells. When scientists have enough databases of cancer cells’ genetic features from different individuals and groups, physicians will now have the chance to change their method in treating cancer, making it to be more effective in treating any existing cancerous tumors.

Since it is not only the single cell origin that causes metastatic cancer, an additional research for this matter is required in order to treat the existing cancerous tumors more effectively.