HOW TO DIAGNOSE PROSTATE CANCER

Earlier the diagnosis, higher the chances of curing any cancer,especially so ,prostate cancer.Any man can develop prostate cancer.There are 2 standard SCREENING tests which are the first steps to diagnose a prostate cancer .A screening test is one which is done when a person has no symptoms.The 2 screening tests are :1.PSA (prostate specific antigen)-- This is a simple blood test .If the values are above normal, a person has to undergo further investigations to rule out a malignancy.
2.DIGITAL RECTAL EXAMINATION (DRE)-- This is an outpatient procedure which is done with a finger inserted into the rectum to assess the prostate gland.
3.BIOPSY --- If the PSA and DRE are abnormal, then the patient is advised to undergo a biopsy.This procedure can be done as an outpatient with the help of a transrectal ultrasound probe.It is usually painless, and takes about 10 minutes.Sometimes, there may be a liitle bleeding after the procedure which usually subsides in a few hours. Multiple bits of the prostate tissue from different quadrants are removed from the prostate gland and sent for histopathology examination.This test will confirm whether a malignancy is present or not. The pathologist will give a report on a.whether a malignancy is present,
b.if present, then which quadrants are positive,
c. what type of maligancy is present(adenocarcinoma is the commonest)
d.Gleason's score.The gleasons score usually determines the aggressiveness of the cancer, a lower score meaning less aggressive and a higher score meaning more aggressive tumor.
The treatment decisions are taken after all this information is ready.
4.DIAGNOSTIC IMAGING: Once a cancer is confirmed, further tests like transrectal ultrasound,CT /MRI /PET CT scans , NUCLEAR BONE SCANS may be ordered to know the extent of the disease and hence stage it.