There’s no better time to get your prostate checked than during Prostate Cancer Awareness Month!
Did you know that September is Prostate Cancer Awareness Month? As prostate cancer continues to claim the lives of over 25,000 American males each year- making it the leading cancer-related cause of death for American males- it is incredibly crucial to get prostates checked regularly by a Urologist in Los Angeles because if the earlier prostate cancer is detected, the better the chance that the patient will be cured. In fact, the president of the Large Urology Group Practice Association has stated that if caught early enough, prostate cancer is almost always curable, with a 10-year survival rate at 99%.
According to recent statistics, one in six American men will get prostate cancer at some point in their lives. This rate is even higher among African-American males and those with a familial history of prostate cancer. And the older a man gets, the higher his chances of developing prostate cancer.
Prostate cancer usually presents no signs of symptoms until it is too late, meaning that getting your prostate checked with a screening is the only way to ensure that any prostate cancer that forms is detected early, when it is very, very treatable.
Prostate cancer can be effectively treated a couple of different ways: surgically and via radiation therapy.
Prostate cancer can be surgically cured with the removal of the prostate, using a method known as prostatectomy. Prostatectomy is most often used to treat prostate cancers that are still in its early stages or prostate cancers that have not responded to radiation therapy. Depending on the severity of the prostate cancer, the testicles may also have to be removed.
Radiation therapy is the other method that is used to cure prostate cancer. During radiation therapy, ionizing radiation is used to damage cells within the body. By damaging cells, apoptosis, or cell death, is induced. However, for normal, non-cancer cells, any damage caused by the radiation therapy should be able to be repaired, and not induce apoptosis. Radiation therapy can be used at all stages of prostate cancer.
Although prostate cancer can be cured, the methods that are necessary to effectively kill the cancer has the high potential to cause an unfortunate side effect: Erectile Dysfunction. This is because prostatectomy involves surgery to areas very close to nerves related to sexual function and radiation therapy inherently involves causing intentional damage to cells around the prostate, including cells related to sexual function.
Even though erectile dysfunction is not favorable, there is good news: with time and treatment, sexual health and function should return. There are prescription medications, surgical implants, medical injections, and external devices available to help with the treatment of erectile dysfunction caused by treatments for prostate cancer.
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It's so important to know what to look out for if you have family history in these specific issues. An urologist can definitely help. A close family member of mine had to deal with lots of prostate issues over the years, and his urologist helped him through every step. Thanks for the detailed information on urology. http://drmatthewbui.com/dr-matthew-bui-ph-d/
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