What should i know about prostate cancer?!
Question:
What should i know about prostate cancer?
My grandpa has it and i don't really know anything about it. like what do they do to treat it? or anything like that. All i know is that it's not spreading. what could this possibly mean?
Answers:
The first thing to realize is that almost 100% of men over the age of 90 will have evidence of prostate cancer on autopsy. However, if you look at any source, you will see that prostate cancer is not the leading cause of death in men...why? Because most cases of prostate cancer are slow growing and people will die of other causes (heart attack, stroke, pneumonia) long before their prostate cancer is a problem. Your grandpa seems to be a good case in point- If the cancer is an "aggressive" cancer (the urologist would know this by the results of the biopsy when they diagnosed the cancer) a treatment might be considered. Bear in mind that all treatments have "side effects", some that are worse that the cancer itself. If the cancer is slow growing (indolent) and especially if your grandfather has other medical problems (heart disease, stroke, dementia)..."watching" the cancer and witholding treatment for now may be the best idea...