The common choices for screening prostate cancer are the digital rectal exam and the prostate specific antigen (PSA) blood test. Last year, another method of screening prostate cancer has been tested. It’s called the early prostate cancer antigen 2 or EPCA-2. It is another method of blood testing and said to be able to determine the spreading of the cancer and said to be better than PSA with regard to this aspect.

According to Robert H. Getzenberg, PhD, director of urology research at Johns Hopkins University’s Brady Urological Institute the test has 3% margin of error. This means that if the test shows that the patient has prostate cancer, it is 97% accurate. Once this method is approved, it is expected that this will replace other existing tests and shall be widely used.

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Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in men. When detected early, before it has spread to other organs, prostate cancer may be curable. A man’s risk for prostate cancer increases with age, and most cases develop in men over age 65 but many older men with prostate cancer die of another cause like heart disease before the cancer has grown enough to cause problems. There is controversy about the value of using digital rectal exams and prostate-specific antigens (PSA) blood test to screen men for prostate cancer. Detecting early prostate cancer may not improve quality of life or prolong life, especially in men who are older or have other serious problems. Therefore many experts are uncertain whether routine screening is appropriate for all men. Since it’s really that much helpful to men, go and talk to your doctor to learn about your risk in getting prostate cancer and whether if screening test are still appropriate for you.

If there are symptoms that suggest a possible infection, the best way to deal with the matter is to take it head on. Assumptions may be made and false conclusions are easy to make but the safest way to deal with it is to consult the experts. Early prostate cancer may be diagnosed during routine checkups when doctors find that there is an elevated PSA or prostrate specific antigen.

However, one need not wait for the symptoms before seeking medical attention. A number of screening tests are designed for unsuspected cancers. This is part one of some of them as defined in www.cancer.gov:

Tests that examine the prostate and blood are used to detect (find) and diagnose prostate cancer.

The following tests and procedures may be used:

* Digital rectal exam (DRE): An exam of the rectum. The doctor or nurse inserts a lubricated, gloved finger into the rectum and feels the prostate through the rectal wall for lumps or abnormal areas.

* Prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test: A test that measures the level of PSA in the blood. PSA is a substance made by the prostate that may be found in an increased amount in the blood of men who have prostate cancer. PSA levels may also be high in men who have an infection or inflammation of the prostate or BPH (an enlarged, but noncancerous, prostate).

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Men who have strong occurrence of breast and ovarian cancer have been found to have a higher risk of developing Prostate Cancer according to the National Prostate Cancer Coalition of Australia. The most aggressive genes responsible for the diseases in women will get a higher risk of contracting it for the link between the BRCA2 gene and its manifestation in males of the same bloodline has long been suspected but till now no direct link has been established. This new study has determined that the occurrence of the gene in males from families with women who have had the diseases do get prostate cancer than those with no family history of the disease. Current tests such as Prostate-Specific Antigen (PSA) have the ability to detect both benign and malignant form of the disease, the earlier being of no serious threat to the health of the individual.

“Men can have prostate cancer and it won’t cause a problem, or they can have prostate cancer and it will kill them,” Dr Suthers said. “We have tests, but they don’t distinguish between those two types. It may well be that the men with the BRCA2 gene have a more malignant type … If that’s confirmed in the next few years, it may mean there’s sufficient information to say that although PSA screening for the general population is not recommended, screening for men with the BRCA2 mutation may be warranted.”

Researchers in the University of Michigan are developing and testing a urine test that is more accurate than current screening methods in the drive to detect prostate cancer earlier. The test that comes as a urine test screens for the presence of four different RNA markers has been successful in detecting 80% of all cases in a study that was done to detect the disease. It also has the ability to determine men with enlarged prostates that do not develop the disease thus prevents misdiagnosis and treatment for non-existent conditions.

“Relative to what is out there, this is the best test so far,” said the study’s lead author, Arul Chinnaiyan, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Michigan Center for Translational Pathology at the University of Michigan.

The development of their prototype into a first generation testing kit is underway as more and more genetic markers are being discovered to be related to the disease.

The links between diabetes and Prostate cancer has been strengthened by the discovery by researchers of six genes that are associated with prostate cancer. One gene called JAZF1, in particular of the 16 now associated with diabetes has been shown to have a definitive cause of prostate cancer which is broadening their view of possible genetic cures for the disease. A variant of the diabetes causing gene, JAZF1 is undergoing further studies to show the relationship with diabetes for they occur at different parts of the gene.

“The remarkable recent progress in identifying regions of the genome that increase risk to diabetes—from 3 to 16 in only a year—will help us unravel the complex basis diabetes and may suggest new and better tailored methods to prevent or treat this disease.,” said U-M’s Michael Boehnke, the lead scientist on the Finland-United States Investigation of Non-Insulin-Dependent Diabetes Mellitus Genetics (FUSION) study group, one of the three lead groups in the study.”

These are just some of the new medical marvels that are being revealed by studying the human genome and the roles genes and other particles within our DNA and the role’s they play that results in the disease.

Danish scientists have found through a 35 year study that the risk of developing prostate cancer in married men is higher that in unmarried ones. The study started through interviews and exams followed by the extensive 35year follow ups that showed, men with less children having the highest risks of developing prostate cancer. Unmarried men and those with more than one children have lower Prostate cancer risks but the idea that becoming a father increases you risk of getting the disease is a controversial one. More studies are being conducted to understand other factors that might have affected the study such as underlying biologic, environmental, social and behavioral factors that may have caused such results for linking fatherhood with prostate cancer is a very controversial claim.

The staging is referred to the process of determining how far the cancer has spread within the body. For prostate cancer, there are four stages.

Stage I
At this stage, the cancer is hard to detect. It can be discovered through needle biopsy or even accidentally when the patient is examined for other illness. The tumor is still small and within the prostate.

Stage II
Here, the tumor is still within the prostate but in an advanced level than in Stage I. The tumor can be detected using imaging tests.

Stage III
The cancer has already spread beyond the prostate gland and can be found in nearby tissues.

Stage IV
The cancer is now on the other organs near the prostate gland such as bladder, liver, or rectum.

As there are a variety of ways to ensure the current state of one’s prostrate glands, we continue to list down some medical procedures that can help one determine whether he is suffering from prostrate cancer.

Below is the second part of the screening tests as listed on ww.cancer.gov:

* Transrectal ultrasound: A procedure in which a probe that is about the size of a finger is inserted into the rectum to check the prostate. The probe is used to bounce high-energy sound waves (ultrasound) off internal tissues or organs and make echoes. The echoes form a picture of body tissues called a sonogram. Transrectal ultrasound may be used during a biopsy procedure.

* Biopsy: The removal of cells or tissues so they can be viewed under a microscope by a pathologist. The pathologist will examine the biopsy sample to check for cancer cells and determine the Gleason score. The Gleason score ranges from 2-10 and describes how likely it is that a tumor will spread. The lower the number, the less likely the tumor is to spread. There are 2 types of biopsy procedures used to diagnose prostate cancer:

– Transrectal biopsy: The removal of tissue from the prostate by inserting a thin needle through the rectum and into the prostate. This procedure is usually done using transrectal ultrasound to help guide the needle. A pathologist views the tissue under a microscope to look for cancer cells.

– Transperineal biopsy: The removal of tissue from the prostate by inserting a thin needle through the skin between the scrotum and rectum and into the prostate. A pathologist views the tissue under a microscope to look for cancer cells.

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