Is prostate cancer fatal? How to treat prostate cancer

The incidence of prostate cancer in China is gradually increasing, which is related to the change of lifestyle and the continuous improvement of living standards. More and more elderly men around me are diagnosed with prostate cancer. Both the patients themselves and their families are still "terrified of cancer" and can't help but panic.

When I introduce prostate cancer to patients, the first thing I say is "You won't die from prostate cancer." The second thing I say is "However, it requires standardized treatment and close follow-up." The third thing I say is "The treatment of prostate cancer requires a good financial foundation." In fact, these are the overall situation of prostate cancer that I explain to patients.

Prostate cancer is a relatively slow-growing cancer with weak erosion to the human body and less invasion of important organs. If the tumor breaks through the prostate capsule, it is not suitable for radical resection, and radiotherapy or androgen blockade therapy can only be selected according to whether there is distant metastasis. In fact, conservative treatment has a very good effect. Our urology department has treated many patients with prostate cancer, and the experience of many years of follow-up of patients has shown a very good treatment effect.

For men over 55 years old, the level of PSA (prostate-specific antigen) in the blood should be checked every year to try to achieve early diagnosis and exclusion. Because prostate cancer does not have its own unique symptoms, the symptoms of prostate cancer are just the usual frequent urination, urgency and difficulty urinating. Only a blood test for PSA can confirm the presence of prostate cancer.

In the case that the tumor has not broken through the capsule, radical surgery is the best method. In September 2011, I performed radical surgery on a 70-year-old prostate cancer patient from Xianning. After a year and a half of follow-up, there was no positive margin, no urinary incontinence, and the PSA was 0.1.

I have also seen cases of postoperative recurrence or local progression. The general requirement is to continue taking medication or consider local radiotherapy, which is very effective, but requires regular check-ups.

Local radiotherapy is a good method for treating locally progressive prostate cancer that is difficult to radically resect, but many of our doctors do not agree with or pay attention to the role of radiotherapy in the treatment of prostate cancer. For pain caused by bone metastasis, local irradiation can also relieve symptoms. Active treatment of bone metastasis of prostate cancer is also an important part, but doctors often ignore this aspect.

Prostate cancer is in a critical stage 2 to 3 years after it is discovered, and many people are prone to progress to the point where hormone blockade therapy is ineffective. But the good news is that there are many drugs available to treat hormone-independent prostate cancer.

I still want to emphasize that you won't die from prostate cancer, so there's no need to be nervous.