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Stage 2 Prostate Cancer
April 19, 2009 |
Time. We rely on it to get us through the day, now time could be helping in the
fight against prostate cancer.
Dr. Barry Blitz is a urologist on the medical staff of Lee Memorial Health System
and adds, “just because you have a cancer doesn’t mean you have to be treated immediately.
We do something called ‘watchful waiting’. The problem is sometimes that’s ‘watchful
worrying’ and we have to adjust our treatment based on the type of cancer there is and the patients overall health.”
Prostate cancer is diagnosed in four different stages. Stage 2 is slightly more
advanced than Stage 1. In Stage 2, the cancer is restricted to inside the prostate
and has not spread to other areas of the body like in Stages 3 and 4.“You still
have to know it is a cancer, and even if you don’t think its spread, all it takes
is one cancer cell to escape and it can be many years until it actually shows up,”
adds Dr. Blitz.
More than 186,000 new cases will be diagnosed this year. Prostate cancer is the
second leading cause of death in American men. “The difficulty is trying to identify
who are those patients that you’re seeing that are going to die from prostate cancer
or have problems from prostate cancer versus the patients who have an almost benign
type of prostate cancer,” explains Dr. Blitz.
The warning signs aren’t easily as recognizable either. “There are very few patients
that first present to us prostate cancer symptoms. As soon as you show up to a doctor with symptoms of prostate cancer, it’s too late,” says Dr. Blitz.
Doctors recommend that men over 40 and those with a family history of prostate cancer
get their prostate checked annually. All men over 50 should get PSA tests. “Screening
is an early rectal exam and a PSA blood test. Either of which were abnormal, we’d
recommend a biopsy,” warns Dr. Blitz. It’s estimated that 30,000 men will die of
prostate cancer this year. |
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