The month of November was devoted to information on male cancers. That of the prostate is the most common. Screening is particularly important.
It is a disease that affects the intimate and has become the most common cancer in men. Prostate cancer is a disease that develops from initially normal prostate cells that transform and multiply uncontrollably until they form a mass called a malignant tumour.
The older you get, the greater the risk of getting prostate cancer. It is a disease which, in terms of severity, has a very wide spectrum. We have cancers that just need monitoring. On the other hand, we have much more serious illnesses.
The risk increases over time
We are talking about 50,000 new cases per year. This is followed in men by colon cancer and lung cancer.
Screening is recommended from the age of fifty. “If someone has had several prostate cancers in the family, you have to get screened earlier,” notes Nicolas Szabla.
Depending on the result of the PSA assay, the only marker available to medicine, the screenings are then spaced out over time. What matters is not so much the dosage of the rate, it is the doubling time of the rate. The shorter this time, the more it alerts doctors.
No warning symptoms
While breast cancer or colorectal cancer are subject to systematic screening, prostate cancer is not part of a national program, in the sense that each patient would receive a prescription at home. This is an individual screening, offered. This is all the more important since prostate cancer does not carry any warning symptoms, except at a very advanced stage.
The screening itself is a blood test and a digital rectal examination. Do not be afraid to get tested, on the contrary! It is a feasible examination by the attending physician or the urologist. In the collective imagination, it can make people smile. In practice, it is an examination that lasts one minute, never refused and always well tolerated. It is not at all unpleasant as an exam.
For aggressive cancer, losing five to ten years for lack of screening can have dramatic consequences.
In the United States, they stopped individual screenings, with a backlash five to ten years later with much more serious cancers. A cancer of this type discovered early can be treated very well. We have diseases that can be treated locally, either surgical removal of the prostate or radiotherapy, to put it simply. If caught in time, there is a chance of complete recovery almost all the time. Conversely, some cancers are so harmless that they should not be treated, only monitored.
A third of people leave active surveillance.
Self-examination for the testicles
For one of the other male cancers, testicular cancer , a lump, often hard, may appear. Screening involves regular self-examination, from the age of twenty. Do not hesitate to consult in case of doubt.