The main symptoms of prostate cancer are a frequent urge to urinate, a weak urine stream, pain when urinating, painful ejaculation, difficulty maintaining erection, pain in the testicle region or feeling of incomplete emptying of the bladder, even after urinating.
Prostate cancer develops slowly and in most cases there are no symptoms in the early stage of the disease. In the more advanced phases, when the tumor spreads to other organs, such as lymph nodes, bones, liver, lungs, bladder or intestines, symptoms related to the affected organ may appear.
11 Symptoms of Prostate Cancer
The main symptoms of prostate cancer are:
- Frequent desire to urinate;
- difficulty to start urinating;
- Jet of very weak urine;
- Wake up several times at night to urinate;
- pain when urinating and/or painful ejaculation;
- Blood in urine or semen;
- Difficulty in maintaining an erection;
- Presence of blood in semen or urine;
- Pain in the region of the testicles;
- Urgency to urinate;
- Feeling of incomplete emptying of the bladder, even after urinating.
At an early stage, prostate cancer may not cause symptoms, however, symptoms may appear as the tumor grows or when it is at a more advanced stage.
In addition, if the cancer has spread to other regions of the body, it is also common to have other less specific symptoms such as excessive tiredness, weight loss for no apparent reason, pain in the back or bones, weakness in the legs, cough or water in the region near the prostate.
Therefore, it is important for a man to consult the urologist from 50 years or 45 years if there is a family history of prostate cancer, to perform preventive tests and detect prostate cancer early, increasing the chances of cure. Check out the main tests that evaluate the prostate.
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Online test of symptoms
To know if there is a risk of having any problems in the prostate it is important to be aware of symptoms such as:
The test of symptoms is a tool that only serves as guidance, not serving as a diagnosis or replacing the consultation with the urologist.
How to confirm the diagnosis
The diagnosis of prostate cancer is made by the urologist through the evaluation of symptoms, health history and prostate cancer in the family, in addition to rectal examination and the PSA blood test.
If during rectal the doctor palpates a hard lump or if the blood test PSA is very altered, it is recommended that a prostate biopsy is performed, in which small pieces of the prostate are removed and then analyzed in the laboratory, and then it is possible to verify if the change is benign or malignant and start the most appropriate treatment, if necessary. Understand how the biopsy is done and when it is indicated.
If prostate cancer is confirmed, the urologist should refer the man to the oncologist in order to start treatment.
Stages of prostate cancer
It is also important that the stage of prostate cancer is identified so that the best treatment is started, which is done through imaging tests and the result of PSA and prostate biopsy.
The following table indicates the main stages of prostate cancer and its characteristics:
How the treatment is done
The treatment of prostate cancer is done by the oncologist or uro-oncologist and varies according to the stage of the tumor.
Thus, surgery to remove the prostate, called prostatectomy, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, hormone therapy or ablative therapy may be indicated. See the main treatments for prostate cancer.
