Cancer Education Blog

Detection, understanding, and treatment of prostate cancer have evolved rapidly in recent years. These discoveries have offered prostate cancer patients new hope and a need for a more multidisciplinary approach to care. 

Prostate cancer is typically a slow-growing type of cancer that has a rate of high survival when found early. That’s why it's important to learn more about it, including some of the more surprising facts about this type of cancer. The more you know, the more likely you’ll be to notice when something is different and get checked out by your doctor. 

Here, we've put together a list of some of the lesser-known facts about prostate cancer.

Prostate cancer is the most common [non-skin] cancer in men. Therefore, it’s important to when to some facts about prostate cancer screenings, and make sure you, or the males in your life, are getting screened for prostate cancer in a timely manner.

Early Detection of Prostate Cancer Changes Outcomes for Patients!

Many perfectly healthy men are screened for prostate cancer as part of their regular health care routine. Doctors sometimes recommend testing simply because of age or family history. Other times, patients have some symptoms, and their doctor may suggest a prostate cancer screening as the first step to understanding the problem.

If you’ve received a prostate cancer diagnosis, the first thing your doctor may discuss with you is the Gleason Score. This is used to describe your stage of prostate cancer. Here we will review prostate cancer, the purpose of the Gleason Score, how it is calculated, and why it is so important.  

To test a tumor for cancer, your doctor will schedule you for a prostate biopsy. A biopsy is an outpatient procedure in which tissue will be removed from the tumor using a needle. This tissue will then be analyzed by a pathologist — a doctor who reviews the results of the biopsy and provides information about the findings. A pathology report shows you the results of your biopsy.

Cancer does not discriminate. Whether these malignancies are caused by genetics, environmental exposure or simply bad luck, the road to recovery is harrowing and unfortunately, not always guaranteed. Men are particularly susceptible to a handful of cancers that carry a history of high death tolls. Today’s oncologists are working to change that as they break ground on new treatments and immunotherapies that surpass the success of traditional cytotoxic chemotherapy. “What’s being developed are treatments that target certain molecular structures either in or on the cancer cell,” says Dr. Thomas Alberico of Virginia Oncology Associates. “Where before we were seeing response rates in the five to 10 percent range with standard chemotherapy, now we’re seeing response rates in the 40, 50 and 60 percent range [with new therapies].”

According to the American Cancer Society, it is estimated that there will be about 175,000 new cases of prostate cancer diagnosed in 2019. About one out of every nine (12%) men in general will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in his lifetime, and that number rises to one in six (17%) for black or African American men specifically. Most often, prostate cancer happens sporadically, with no clear reason why the cancer started. However, sometimes prostate cancer can be seen running in a family in a hereditary manner, being passed down from generation to generation. Around 5-10% of prostate cancer diagnoses can be considered part of a hereditary cancer predisposition syndrome.

By Mark T. Fleming, MD

Genetic testing for cancer and targeted drug therapy regimens have changed how multiple cancers, particularly breast cancer, colon cancer, and lung cancers are cared for. More and more, we are finding similar benefits in the diagnosis and treatment of prostate cancer.

High-quality genetic testing now can accurately pinpoint both hereditary and somatic mutations, providing crucial insights into how prostate cancer develops and grows. At the same time, new medications tailored to specific mutations have shown great promise in clinical trials, especially in a metastatic disease that has not responded to standard androgen-deprivation therapy.