Can prostate cancer be detected by digital rectal examination?

As we all know, prostate cancer is a malignant tumor that poses a great threat to the patient's life. Especially if it is not discovered and treated in time, the prognosis is very poor and the survival rate will be greatly reduced. What kind of examinations are generally done to detect prostate cancer? Can rectal examination detect it? Let's learn about these issues together.

For prostate cancer, it is difficult for patients to detect the early stage of the disease by self-feeling. Generally, they need to undergo examinations for diagnosis. For example, digital rectal examination was the only way to diagnose prostate before B-ultrasound. Therefore, for some elderly men, it is recommended to do a digital rectal examination once a year to detect prostate cancer early. The accuracy rate of digital rectal examination can reach about 70%. Early diagnosis and early treatment can sometimes achieve a radical cure, so it is very important to perform a digital rectal examination every year to detect prostate cancer.

Of course, if there is any doubt about the diagnosis of prostate cancer, it can be confirmed by combining other examinations, such as prostate B-ultrasound examination. If low-echo nodules are found in the prostate during this examination, then it is possible that the patient has prostate cancer. In addition, CT and MRI examinations are also helpful for the diagnosis of prostate cancer.

For some men who are highly suspected of having prostate cancer, biopsy can be performed through perineal or rectal puncture, which can achieve a diagnosis rate of 80%. Prostate puncture is performed under local anesthesia and is generally not dangerous. Only some patients may experience fever.

In addition to the above examination and diagnosis methods, the application of prostate specific antigen (pSA) testing methods in recent years has greatly helped to improve the diagnostic accuracy of prostate cancer. This detection method can often detect the disease in its early stages. Once detected, effective measures can be taken for treatment in the early stages, which can achieve better results.

From the above introduction, it can be seen that rectal digital examination can also detect prostate cancer. Of course, in addition to rectal digital examination, there are other methods with a relatively high accuracy rate for diagnosing prostate cancer. Therefore, for some patients suspected of having prostate cancer, they can follow the doctor's advice to undergo examination according to their own situation, so as to diagnose the disease more clearly, treat it early, and obtain good results.