April 30, 2008

Staging and Grading of Prostate Cancer

Staging and Grading

Once the diagnosis of prostate cancer has been made the disease has to be staged and graded. The stage refers to the extent and spread of the disease while the grade refers to the nature (aggressiveness) of the particular tumor. Staging will determine the extent of disease and provide important prognostic information that will influence the management decisions.

Staging investigations - PSA - X-rays of lumbar spine and pelvis - Chest X-ray - Radionuclitide bone scan - MTI scan of pelvis

TNM Staging system

T stage (extent of primary lesion)

- T1 - tumor confined to prostate, not palpable or visible on TRUS - T2 - tumor palpable or visible on TRUS but confined to prostate - T3 - spread beyond the prostatic capsule - T3a - extracapsular spread only - T3b - involvement of the seminal vesicles - T4 - invasion into rectal wall, bladder neck or pelvic wall N (Nodal) status - N0 - regional nodes not involved - N1 - regional nodes involved by tumor M (Distant Metastases) - M0 - no distant metastases - M1 - distant metastases present

Grading

Grading refers to what the cancer looks like under a microscope. The most commonly used system is the Gleason grade and score. The glandular pattern is compared to that of a normal prostate and scored out of 5, where 1 resembles a pattern very close to normal and 5 resembles severely distorted glandular architecture. The two predominant glandular patterns within the cancer are graded out of 5 and the combined score calculated out of 10. The higher the Gleason score, the more aggressive is the tumor and the worse is the prognosis. Patients with cancers confined to the prostate (T1 and T2) and no involvement of the lymph nodes or other organs (N0 and M0) are potentially curable by surgery or radiotherapy. Patients with disease beyond the prostate are not curable.

With our next information – we will inform you about the “Risk factors for enlarged prostate” – so you should have a look on this site in the next 2 weeks! If you have any question sends us your e-mail.

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Fritz Frei Admin
http://www.cancer-info.info

Fritz Frei make it easy to check out the important details about the diagnoses and test's of the prostate cancer. To receive more information's about all cancer -questions - Links and last research NEW's - visit the http://www.cancer-info.info/.

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What to do For Enlarged Prostate or for Prostate Cancer

By age of 50, most men will already have an enlarged prostate and three of these men will have cancer cells forming in their prostate. Prostate cancer is the main cancer found in men and by age 75 three out of four men will have prostate cancer.

The facts are pretty clear, if you are a male you will have to deal with BPH, enlarged prostate, or prostate cancer.

So how do you know if you have BPH or prostate cancer? Well, here are a few of the symptoms:

" getting up at night to urinate
" having difficulty urinating
" not completely emptying your bladder
" having pain during sex
" having pain when urinating

Medical test that you can get for enlarged prostate or prostate cancer.

" PSA, prostate specific antigen, which gives a good indication of your prostate health
" PAP, prostate acid phosphatase, a test that is more accurate than PSA, but many doctors don't use it or are unfamiliar with it.
" Sonogram is a safe and accurate way to check your prostate
" MRI, magnetic resonance imaging, is also accurate but is the most expensive test.

There is other tests that doctors like to make and that is,

Biopsy of the prostate - Don't have it done. It's very harmful to the prostate and should never be done.

The ideal way to take care of prostate health issues is to change or improve you diet and lifestyle. Here are some area that you need to look at to make changes.

" diet
" supplement
" fasting
" hormone balancing
" eliminate addictive substances - smoking, alcohol, coffee, non-herbal tea)
" exercise
" stress, anxiety, and emotional issues

The first thing you need to do is start using a supplement that will start to heal your prostate condition. Then you need to change your diet. Here I will tell which supplement to buy immediately and in another article I will outline a good diet to follow.

Go out and immediately but a supplement that contains Beta-sitosterol. You will find beta-sitosterol in saw palmetto and pygeum africanum, but these herbal plants have very little beta-sitosterol. This make them useless for prostate health. You need 325 to 610 mg per day and these herbal products 30 mg or less.

A good beta-sitosterol to buy is the NSI Phytosterol Complex with Beta-sitosterol -- 240 Tablets. This is only $20.00 plus shipping.

You will find this product contains the following ingredients:

Betasitosterol
Stigmasterol
Campesterol
Brassicasterol

All of these chemicals are called Phytosterol, which are consider the fat inside a plant. These sterols have an anti-inflammatory property and help to buildup your immune system. They have been found effective in reducing the inflammation of the prostate, BPH, lowering cholesterol, and aiding in many other illnesses.

Take the first step in keeping a health prostate and avoid having to deal with enlarged prostate or prostate cancer. Look for more of my articles on prostate health.

Rudy Silva is a natural nutritionist. For more information and tips on a prostate diet that helps prostate cancer or an enlarged prostate go to: http://www.enlargeprostateinformation.com/.

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10 Important Steps To Beat Your Prostate Cancer

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men in the United States and it is the second most common cause of cancer death in men over age 55. The incidence of prostate cancer increases dramatically with each decade after 50. Fortunately, prostate cancer tends to be slow-growing compared to many other cancers – the majority of prostate cancers either do not spread or cause any significant harm for decades.

In general, men run a 1-in-6 chance of developing prostate cancer at some point in their lives. More than 230,000 new cases are expected this year in the United States, with about 27,000 deaths.

Most men will choose conventional treatment, often surgery or radiation, but there are life-changing potential side effects they need to be aware of, and discuss with their doctors.

Surgery, called a prostatectomy for the surgical removal of the prostate gland, means impotence for about 75% of the men choosing this path, according to a September 2004 study published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Also, about 14% of the men were incontinent – could not control their bladder – five years after the operation.

With standard radiation therapy, the odds of impotence are about the same, 73%. The incontinence rate was much lower, just under 5%. There are new radiation therapies we discussed in the new guidebook How To Beat Your Prostate Cancer that have better outcomes.

No matter what conventional therapy a man chooses, if he does nothing else there is a 30% to 40% chance that his cancer or another cancer will recur. That’s because his immune system was not strong enough to protect him from the first cancer, and if he does nothing it will be no stronger the next time it is needed. In addition, radiation and chemotherapy depress the immune system, leaving it weaker than it was before you got treatment. Finally, any cancerous cells that survive the radiation and chemotherapy treatments, or escape the surgeon’s knife – and a few ALWAYS do – must be cleaned up by the immune system. Yet those cells that survived radiation or chemotherapy are, by definition, the strongest mutant cells. Cells that survive chemotherapy even have their own name: Multi-drug resistant. All of this means that if a man’s cancer recurs, the cure rates the second time around are much, much lower – on the order of 5% survival.

So even if a man chooses conventional treatment, the information and advice on alternative treatments in How To Beat Your Prostate Cancer is very important for his recovery and continued good health.

Here are 5 of the 10 important steps covered in a Free Report by the authors of How To Beat Your Prostate Cancer that have worked for others:

1. Pick a doctor carefully. The numbers above on impotence and incontinence are pretty scary. Top surgeons who perform hundreds of these operations tend to have better numbers, and you should ALWAYS get the statistics in advance from any doctor before you let them treat you. Remember that if you are talking to a surgeon, he probably will want to operate. If your doctor is a radiation oncologist, don’t be surprised if he pushes radiation. A clinical oncologist might counsel chemotherapy. Always consider the source. If you want to try alternative therapy first, since you really are not pressed for time, choose an alternative doctor or health care practitioner just as carefully.

2. Boost your immune system. If you’re going to undergo conventional treatment, you need to boost your immune system to deal with the impact of chemotherapy and radiation. You also need to clean up the remaining cells after therapy, and then build back your immune system so cancer does not recur. If you are going to pursue an alternative treatment path while you have the time, boosting your immune system is Job #1. Several chapters in How To Beat Your Prostate Cancer show you how to do that.

3. Alkalize your internal environment. Cancer cells are highly acidic, and cancer can’t live in an alkaline environment. You can test your pH level with test strips from the pharmacy or health food store. It should be over 7.0, preferably in the 7.2 to 7.4 range. If your internal body environment is acidic, it makes it much easier for cancer to grow and metastasize. Prostate cancer often metastasizes to the bones, making it much harder to beat.

4. Get more oxygen to your cells. Cancer hates oxygen. In the lab, when they are doing an experiment where they want cancerous cells to grow quickly, they simply turn down the oxygen. When they want to stabilize the experiment, they turn the oxygen back up. The same is true of your body.

5. Take vitamins and supplements. If you eat the Standard American Diet, you are eating fruits and vegetables grown on depleted soil, picked too early so they won’t ripen and spoil while they’re in the distribution chain, and then probably overcooked. Even if you are eating organic fruits and vegetables, grass-fed pastured meat and raw milk, you still can’t get the massive amounts of vitamins and supplements you need to let your immune system overcome a cancerous tumor that has become established. You must take high-quality vitamins and minerals, digestive enzymes and specific anti-cancer supplements like those recommended in Chapter 7 of How To Beat Your Prostate Cancer.

* * * * *

The complete Free Report with all 10 important steps a man can take to begin fighting his prostate cancer right away can be obtained from http://www.beat-prostate-cancer.net/.

Michael Murphy is the Executive Director of the Cures Research Institute, an organization dedicated to combining the best of conventioal and alternative medicine to drmatically improve outcomes for people with health problems. © Cures Research Institute 2006

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April 27, 2008

Prostate Cancer Treatments - Restore Hope

For most men, the initial thought after receiving their diagnosis centers on prostate cancer treatments. Fortunately, the options are many, though some therapies respond to various cancer stages better than others.

At the outset, two of the most common forms of treatment are surgery and radiation. Surgery effectively removes the cancer cells manually or through the use of less invasive lasers. Radiation therapy involves killing or shrinking the cancer cells with high energy x-rays via an external source or by implanting a radioactive "seed" near the cancer site.

For more advanced or recurring cases of prostate cancer, chemotherapy is frequently used. Though often believed to be the same as radiation, chemotherapy relies on drugs that are typically administered intravenously to destroy the cancer cells.

In addition to chemotherapy, if the prostate cancer spreads to other sites on the body or for fighting advanced or metastatic stages, hormone therapy and biophosphates are commonly employed. Hormone therapy draws on drugs that impede testosterone production, while biophosphate treatments work to offset the bone weakness that hormone therapy can produce.

These are all treatments administered by medical professionals, but complementary therapies, also known as alternative or holistic treatments, have been found to support more traditional methods. Examples of these treatments are herbal medicines and vitamin supplements, therapeutic massage and other forms of healing touch, and harnessing mental energy to aid in healing.

While these treatments are all currently available, patients should remember that new investigational treatments are introduced all of the time. These are therapies or medicines that may be effective, even though they are still in the research phases or not approved for widespread use.

http://prostatehealth-101.com/ is a website committed to providing you with the best information regarding prostate cancer. Whether you're searching for the latest prostate cancer treatments, or you're wondering what the common causes and risk factors of prostate cancer are, we've got you covered!

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April 20, 2008

Dealing With Prostate Disease

An enlarged prostate is a natural occurrence in men as they age. One effect of an enlarged prostate is that it will affect the urethra and me to urinary problems. The enlarged prostate squeezes the urethra and obstructs the flow of urine. This is known as benign prosthetic hyperplasia, BPH. The most common effects of BPH are difficulty urinating, and the frequent need to urinate in a time of day, but especially at night.

Some people are not bothered by this prostate disease, they are able to live their lives in a fulfilling matter. Others however find that this disrupts their daily lives to the point where something must be done. Many of these men affected with prostate disease will find that there is blood in their urine, still having the urge to urinate even after finishing, or weak urination. It is not surprising then that these symptoms will make a man worry about his health, and may even affect him mentally.

Prostate cancer may also arise. This prostate disease will affect the man's sexual function. In this case, the man may experience painful ejaculations, and the inability to maintain an erection. In this case, the prostate disease has a severe detriment not only to the man's physical health but also especially to his mental well-being.

Traditionally men view themselves as being sexual aggressor in many situations, any upside to this delicate balance of the male ego will result in severe mental anguish. Unfortunately, prostate disease has this potential. Prostate diseases especially harmful to the man who is unable to cope with sexual dysfunctions.

There are many treatments available for prostate disease in any of its forms be at prostate cancer, or BPH. The key to success is having the prostate disease discovered diagnosed and treated early. The sooner the better. Success is much more likely when the prostate disease is caught in its infancy.

An important tool in fighting prostate disease is maintaining a prostate healthy diet. Leafy green vegetables and fruits rich with antioxidants are both good choices. There is evidence to suggest that taking vitamins and supplements with vitamin E, saw Palmetto, and selenium are important for maintaining prostate health.

Maintaining a healthy lifestyle to avoid prostate disease also includes proper exercise regimens. Daily cardiovascular exercise will not only pay off in the long run with other health benefits, but it will also help maintain a healthy prostate.

Prostate disease can be controlled through early detection and treatment. It is best to take a holistic approach to treating prostate disease. Work with your doctor to discuss the best course of treatments, as well as start making positive changes in your eating and exercise habits. Maintaining a healthy prostate will not only add years to your life, but it will also significantly increase the quality of your life.

You can also find more info on Prostate Exam and Laser Prostate Treatment . Prostatecancertreatmenthelp.com is a comprehensive resource to know more about prostate cancer treatment.

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Prostate Cancer - Cholesterol Lowering Products May Help

Men aged fifty and over are at risk for prostate problems and possibly even prostate cancer. Medical research has shown that there is a possibility that statin medications, normally used to lower cholesterol, may be helpful in cutting the risk of getting advanced prostate cancer in half. . This includes the use of drugs such as such as Lipitor, Mevacor, and Zocor. This research is based on ten years of data and is still in the early, observational stages. Preliminary findings are that they will not help with preventing or lowering the chance of getting early, curable prostate cancer.

How this was found

In 1990 there was a study of 34,438 men between the ages of 44 and 79 who did not have prostate cancer. Over the next years they filled out health surveys that included the use of cholesterol lowering medications. In the year 2000 ninety percent of the men in the survey said that they were taking statin drugs for their cholesterol and in the same year 2,074 men were confirmed as having prostate cancer.

The researcher compared the two groups of men in the study - the ones taking statins and the ones not taking it - and found that the risk of developing advanced prostate cancer was cut in half, and the risk of fatal cancer was cut by a third. They also found that the longer the patient took the statin medication, the less the risk of cancer became. They determined that there was a correlation between prostate cancer risk factors and taking medicines such as Lipitor.

The correlation between cancer cells and cholesterol

Medical researchers are now working on determining if statin medications actually has some properties that interfere with the cancer or if simply lowering cholesterol levels help lower the risk. Because cholesterol clogs arteries and has been found in prostate cancer cells, there is good indication that the medicine works on them as well, especially since it has already been found to dispose of damaged cells through apoptosis, which is the process of the cells dying the normal programmed death.

Statins have also been shown to possess anti-inflammatory properties. Inflammation is a big problem with many different cancers all over the body. Unfortunately the information on how statins work is still very informal and has not been reported in any medical journals yet. The medical community is conducting intensive research before making many announcements.

How Lipitor works

Lipitor, a possible statin that could be used for prostate problems, lowers cholesterol by blocking the production of cholesterol in the body. It helps prevent heart disease, hardening of the arteries, heart attack, stroke, and vascular disease. It also lowers the risk of all of these problems in patients with coronary heart disease and type 2 diabetes. Whether or not it will be useful in the treatment of prostate problems remains to be seen. Always make sure you take medicines such as Lipitor under the care and advice of your primary physician and never take it for conditions they have not recommended the medication for.

Find out about supplements for prostate health by visiting http://www.prostatefactfile.com/ Discover the latest ideas on hormone treatment for prostate cancer

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Obesity Makes Hard Your Prostate Cancer Diagnosis

I am not sure that you are aware that Obesity and cancer of all kinds are related to the extent that experts believe that the death rates of the two health problems are associated. Yes, studies have proven that there is a valid relationship between cancer death rates and obesity estimated at about 100, 000 deaths every year in the U.S.

Having revealed that to you; be further inform that overweight, according to experts, makes it very hard to detect early prostate cancer putting overweight men in the greater risk of getting help very late and thus have less chances of surviving prostate cancer affliction, reports a recent scientific study that looked at the relationship between obesity and cancer death rates

So please take care of your weight, eating the right calorie and exercising properly. Nutrition is very important in maintaining your weight. If your job makes you sedentary, you have to establish a routine of exercise to help you burn fat and remain in the right Body mass that makes prostate cancer screening an easy task for your Urologist.

The study in question found that the prostate gland increases in size as body mass index (BMI) increases. BMI refers to the evaluation formula based on the comparison between your weight and your height. Because of the effect of obesity on your prostate, doctors get thrown 20 to 30 percent off mark on your prostate cancer diagnosis.

Finally, note that if you are obese, your prostate will be hidden in your body fat and identifying a cancerous tumor will be like looking for a needle in a haystack causing you to run the risk of carrying a cancerous prostate gland without proper diagnosis till too late.

Charles Nehsah writes for your good health and recommends Prostate Cancer Resource Center for useful links for solving your prostate cancer problems once and for all.

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April 13, 2008

The Importance of Catching Prostate Cancer Early

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men. The good news is that prostate cancer is very curable. As with any cancer, the outcome is always better if it is caught early. Prostate cancer is associated with aging and men are deemed more susceptible the older they are. Catching prostate cancer early is the best way for a man to increase their chances of survival and that involves knowing the symptoms and seeing a doctor regularly.

When prostate cancer is caught early a man has almost a 100% chance of survival. The symptoms of prostate cancer may not show up during the early stages. That is why getting a regular prostate exam is important. The exam can be done as part of a routine physical and is painless and easy to do. The prostate is a small gland that is located under the bladder. When cancer enlarges the prostate a man can experience: problems with urination, signs of blood in the urine, and back pain. These symptoms can also be from an enlarged prostate which is not life threatening. This is why seeing a doctor on a regualr basis is so important. When a man reaches age 50 it is recommended by the American Cancer Society that they be screened yearly. Men at higher risk are African American and have family history of the disease. Treatment includes a variety of procedures from surgery to hormone therapy.

Prostate cancer can be fatal, but it does not have to be. It is the most curable of all known cancers and by catching it early a man increases the chance he will walk away cancer free. By knowing the symptoms and getting regular exams a man can catch prostate cancer early. It is imperative that every man understands the importance of catching prostate cancer early.

Robert Thatcher is a freelance author based in Cupertino, California. He publishes articles and reports in various ezines and contributes on a regular basis to FreeNetPublishing.com.

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A Must Read About A Simple Urine Test That Detects Early Prostate Cancer

Did you know that the growth of human cells is ongoing? This is so that the body can continuously replace dead cells with new cells to take over same functions as the dead cells once did in the same tissues of organs. This is the basis of body development and longevity.

But abnormalities do occur in this process of body development to cause cells to start growing out of control and thus form a mass called tumor, which can be diagnosed as cancerous if found to be malignant. Malignancy refers to when cells overgrowth begins or is seen to head towards invading nearby tissues, and if unchecked is very likely to spread all over the body an cause death.

Prostate cancer is a type of cancer that affects the prostate gland of men when the cells in prostate start to duplicate without control, and may begin to spread outside the prostate gland onto neighboring organs.

There are lots of different kinds of medication for prostate cancer depending on the extent of the cancer. As with any repair or cure, early detection through regular screening can help in treatment.

Digital rectal examination (DRE) or the procedure of using a gloved finger inserted in the rectum to feel and measure how big the gland has grown, to ascertain the possibility of prostate tumor used to be the common screening method for monitoring the prostate of men, especially by age of 40, when they are thought to be more at the risk of developing prostate cancer.

Subsequently, as men arrive age 50, it is a medical mandate that a yearly PSA test should be carried out to help detect early prostate cancer. This method is known to be more effective in diagnosing even the minutest sign of cancerous cells development in the prostate gland.

However, even a better test for detecting early prostate cancer is now a simple urine test that enables the detection of the presence of the protein thymosin B15 in the urine. This is very easy to detect because only cancerous cells are known to make this particular protein that aids the migration of cancerous cells.

Charles Nehsah writes for your good health and recommends Prostate Cancer Resource Center for useful links for solving your prostate cancer problems once and for all.

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April 5, 2008

Hormone Therapy Treatment - Help For Prostate Cancer

Prostate cancer hormone therapy treatment is also known as androgen deprivation therapy (ADT). When dealing with prostate cancer and ways to treat it, you want to concentrate on reducing the levels of male hormones in the body. These hormones include testosterone and dihydrotestoterone. While not directly causing prostate cancer, the hormones stimulate the malignant cells to grow and multiply. Research has shown that by reducing the hormones that are produced by the testicles prostate cancer has shrunk in the gland or has slowed down in its growth.

Only the doctor can decide who will benefit the most from hormone therapy treatment. Patients who are not able to have prostate surgery or radiation treatment because the cancer has spread beyond the confines of the prostate are good candidates for hormone treatment therapy. Prostate cancer hormone therapy treatment can be used in addition to radiation therapy and also if there has been a re occurrence of the cancer.

Types of prostate cancer hormone therapy treatment

Orchiectomy - surgical castration - is actually a form of hormone therapy because by surgically removing the testicles you are removing the hormones that cause the stimulation of cancerous cell growth. This usually helps slow the growth and sometimes actually shrink the cancer. This procedure is done as outpatient surgery and for those patients who are concerned over how they will look after the surgery, artificial sacs that look and feel like natural testicles can be inserted into the scrotum as replacements. Side effects of this procedure include but are not limited to: reduced or absent libido and impotence; hot flashes; anaemia; loss of muscle mass; weight gain; fatigue; and depression. All of these side effects can be prevented and treated.

LHRH (luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone) analogs are an option over orchiectomy. Most men opt for this treatment even though it costs more and requires more frequent visits to the doctor. LHRH analogs lower testosterone levels without the need to remove the testicles. The analogs are implanted beneath the skin monthly or in multiple month doses. Popular medications include Lupron, Viadur, Eligard, Zoladex, and Trelstar. Hot flashes, osteoporosis, and side effects similar to those found with the surgical castration can be found in patients receiving these treatments. Occasionally a patient's testosterone levels will flare when these treatments are started and can be counteracted by anti-androgen medication.

LHRH antagonists, such as Plenaxis, work like the LHRH analogs, but they seem to work faster and do not cause the testosterone levels to increase and cause the tumour to suddenly grow. Less than 5% of patients have an allergic reaction to the use of the antagonists and it has been approved for use in men whose prostate cancer has advanced and cannot take other treatment and refuse surgery. The side effects are the same and this hormone therapy is administered in the doctor's office as injections in the buttocks.

Anti-androgens block the body's ability to respond to androgens. Androgens are also produced by the adrenal glands, although not in the same amount as what is produced by the testicles. This treatment is administered in the form of pills and is commonly combined with the other treatments. Doctors are actually testing the use of just anti-androgens in treating prostate cancer. Diarrhea, nausea, liver problems and tiredness are some of the side effects of the medication.

Controversies in hormone treatment therapy

As with all medical treatments and medication uses, there are some controversies surrounding prostate cancer hormone treatment therapy. There is a question as to the benefits of starting hormone therapy as soon as the cancer is detected or waiting until there is more clinical proof that it helps in early stages. Not all doctors believe in using the hormones continuously, citing that the patient's body could become resistant to the treatment.

Discover the latest ideas on hormone treatment for prostate cancer by visiting http://www.prostatefactfile.com. Find out about supplements for prostate health.

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Prostate Cancer Patients Have A Brighter Future With Ketoconazole

No doubt, you are confused and feel helpless when you are diagnosed with cancer of the prostate gland, but today there's hope for millions suffering from this type of cancer in the form of the wonder drug Ketoconazole. Earlier the fear of surgery and castration had huge psychological effects but now it has been found that therapy depriving the patient of androgen can be administered in a much more humane way. Ketoconazole can work magic by way of combating prostate cancer.

To lower androgen levels, what medical specialists now prescribe is the application of HDK or High-Dose Ketoconazole. The substance acts as a barrier and controls secretions from the endocrine glands. In this way, the production of testosterone is diminished and logically it works like Androgen Deprivation Therapy or ADT, as it is commonly called. The previous custom of performing surgery on the genital area to deprive the prostate of the hormone androgen can thus be avoided.

Ketoconazole hinders the enzyme P450. Laboratory experiments have proven the ability of Ketoconazole to kill cancer cells. However, a more complete treatment is to administer doses of the combination of Ketoconazole and Hydrocortisone. They complement each other. While the Ketoconazole hinders the secretion of testosterone, the synthetic Hydrocortisone is a substitute for the cortisol in the body.

If the body rejects High-Dose Ketoconazole, LDK or Low-Dose Ketoconazole may be administered instead. This, as the name suggests, is a lower dose of Ketoconazole. It has been found that the results are as good as those after treatment with HDK.

Medical specialists advise HDK to be taken three times a day in the first week. The recommended strength is 200 mg. The dosage of HDK is then raised to double the strength. However, the timings don't alter. To be efficacious, Ketoconazole is best taken on an empty stomach. The ideal time is midway between meals. That would be approximately two hours after one meal and two hours before the next. The reason is that absorption of Ketoconazole is much faster on an empty stomach, without the interference from other substances in medications such as histamines.

Hydrocortisone on the other hand is best taken with food. Take great precautions as to the dosage. Stick to what the doctor has prescribed. An overdose of Hydrocortisone could result in edema, especially around the ankles. If such a manifestation should occur, don't under any circumstances stop taking the drug abruptly. The dosage should be gradually tapered off.

Ketoconazole is the answer to the prayers of millions of people suffering from prostate cancer. It has the potential to give the sufferer another chance at life, as it curbs the malignant cells through efficiently preventing enzymes from degenerating. Medications that have the generic name Ketoconazole is what you should talk to your doctor about.

Milos Pesic is an expert in the field of Prostate Cancer and runs a highly popular and comprehensive Prostate Cancer web site. For more articles and resources on Prostate Cancer related topics, treatment options and much more visit his site at:

=> http://prostate.need-to-know.net/

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Causes And Risk Factors For Prostate Cancer - What Every Man Should Know

The causes and risk factors for prostate cancer are important pieces information that every man should know about. As men get older, they face the possibility of having prostate problems in the future. Risk factors are anything that can increase the chance of getting cancer yet prostate cancer is still a big mystery. Researchers in the medical community have yet to learn everything about prostate cancer and are still looking for what exactly causes it. Some people may have no risk factors and yet still get the disease. Other may have numerous risk factors and never get it.

The known risk factors

The biggest and strongest risk factor for getting prostate cancer is their age. It is uncommon to find men under the age of forty suffering from this disease, but there have been reported cases of it. Usually men over the age of fifty are more prone to get prostate cancer and two out of three men have prostate cancer over the age of sixty-five. It also seems more prevalent in men of African-American descent. Most of these cases are also diagnosed during the advanced stage of the disease.

Prostate cancer is also more common in North America, Northwestern Europe, Australia, and in the Caribbean. There are probably more cases reported in this areas could be due to the intensive amount of medical screening that is done by the nations in these areas. Lifestyle choices, such as diet, smoking, drinking, and other environmental factors all contribute to the cancer. Asian men seem to be less susceptible to getting prostate cancer than most others. High intake of red meat, high fat dairy products, and large amounts of calcium can all be counted as contributing to the risk factors that cause prostate cancer.

Family history may also be a part of some people getting prostate cancer while others do not. There could be a genetic factor involved and a man who has a brother that has had prostate cancer is at more than double the risk of getting it himself. It gets even higher if they have had several close relatives who have had the cancer. Unfortunately this inherited gene is also responsible for other forms of cancer.

The possible risk factors

There are other causes and risk factors of prostate cancer that have not been clinically proven to cause prostate cancer but may very well influence the cells in the body. Obesity is a problem and the cause of a variety of medical problems. Studies have been done on how obesity affects men and it has been found that obese patients are at a larger risk of getting prostate cancer, not having diagnosed until it is in the late stages of the disease and dying from it.

Another possible cause and risk factor could be prostatitis - which is the inflammation of the prostate gland - and infection. Researchers have discovered that men with enlarged, swollen prostates can also have cancerous cells in the gland. While there is no proof that they are related, it is not ruled out as a risk. Researchers are investigating the possibility that sexually transmitted infections could also increase the risk of getting cancer, usually due to the inflammation of the gland, but once again there is no firm conclusion.

While most men might think that having a vasectomy is a good idea, there is a possibility that men who have had the procedure done prior to the age of thirty-five are setting themselves up for getting prostate cancer later in life. It's only a possibility that the risk could be increased in these men, but this should not deter any man who wishes to have this procedure down.

Reducing your risks

Causes and risk factors associated with prostate cancer can be reduced. A proper diet and exercise, yearly physicals, and simply taking care of the body can add years to a man's life and help them avoid the complications prostate cancer can cause.

Find out about supplements for prostate health by visiting http://www.prostatefactfile.com . Discover the latest ideas on hormone treatment for prostate cancer.

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