One of the most important factors in the care and treatment of any form of cancer, is to know how much of the cancer is present at the time when the cancer is first discovered. The way that doctors are able to know and communicate with each other about much cancer is present at the time of the initial discovery is with something called a stage.
The stages of Prostate Cancer, simply put, are a measure of how much Prostate Cancer is present when we first find it.
Thankfully, with today’s measures, which include regular yearly check ups with a digital rectal exam (which is abbreviated as a DRE) and the measuring of a blood test known as a PSA level, MOST prostate cancers are now found in the early stages.
As with other cancers, we are used to hearing things such as “stage I” or “Stage II” etc when it comes to cancer. Indeed, Prostate Cancer is no different. It also has been classified into number stages with the lowest numbers indicating the least amount of cancer found at the time of the initial diagnosis and the highest numbers indicating the most amount of cancer found at the time of the initial diagnosis.
The difference with Prostate Cancer, however, is that the staging system can be a little complicated. It is not only divided into stages I, II, III and IV; it is further subdivided into T1a, T1b, T2b, etc. As such, the staging numbers and letters used for Prostate Cancer are not that intuitive and/or clear. They certainly are not easy to immediately memorize.
As such, for this Cancer In Plain English posting, we will simply state that early stage Prostate Cancer is Prostate Cancer that is in the stages more or less I and/or II and the cancer is primarily located in the Prostate at that time.
The more advanced stages of Prostate Cancer are stages III and IV and these are cancers that occur in men who have more or less not recognized the symptoms they were experiencing or ignored the symptoms. Typically Prostate Cancer does not have any symptoms when it is early along, except frequency with urination or getting up in the middle of the night to urinate; however, the most powerful and significant symptom in Prostate Cancer is back pain that will not go away. This symptom is so important because it indicates that the Prostate Cancer has grown in the prostate and has now spread to the lower back and is causing destruction and pain in the lower back.
When men go for regular check ups and measurements of PSA blood levels regularly, Prostate Cancer is found well before it has had a chance to grow, spread to the bones of the back and cause pain back there. If, on the other hand, men do not go for yearly check ups and do not have yearly measurement of blood PSA levels and, worse yet, ignore that bothersome back pain that seems to not go away, then they may be putting themselves at risk for finding Prostate Cancer only after it is much more advanced and, by that time, incurable.
All of these and many more concepts about Prostate Cancer can be found and are explained in very easy to understand language in the Prostate Cancer audio CD available on the web site known as the web site www.CancerInPlainEnglish.com