Prostate Cancer Risk Factors and How It Presents

Both can perform it, but a urologist is better equipped to manage complications if they occur, such as bleeding in the urine or from the rectum.

Robotic radical prostatectomy is used for low-risk and intermediate-risk disease, and can be used for high-risk disease too, provided the lymph nodes are not involved, in which case it is combined with an extended lymph node dissection. If the lymph nodes are already positive, radical surgery is not performed.

It is not mandatory as routine screening, but a baseline PSA is checked before starting an anti-androgen such as dutasteride, which is commonly prescribed for BPH.

Alfuzosin is a commonly used drug that relieves the urinary symptoms of BPH. Silodosin is a newer, more potent alternative. Alfuzosin is generally preferred in younger, sexually active men, while silodosin is preferred in older patients because of its sexual side-effect profile.

That is not the case. Between the ages of 80 and 90, up to 80% of men are found to harbour some focus of prostate cancer, but most die of other causes rather than the cancer itself. Because it is often a low-risk, indolent disease in this age group, treatment is sometimes deliberately avoided if the patient is asymptomatic.

Increasing age is the biggest factor, along with a strong family history; the disease is also more common in men of African descent.

Early disease is usually asymptomatic and found via PSA screening; locally advanced disease can cause obstructive urinary symptoms, and spread to lymph nodes or bone can cause leg swelling, bone pain or fractures.