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Men's Health

What is Prostate Cancer?

Summary & Participants

Prostate cancer is a subject every man should know about -- it's one of the leading causes of cancer death among men. But many don't know what their risk is, let alone what they can do to protect themselves. Are you as informed as you should be? Join our panel of experts for a discussion of the basics of colon cancer.

Medically Reviewed On: July 23, 2008

Webcast Transcript

DANIEL SHASHA, MD: It's too common. It is a disease that I tell my patients, if you're lucky enough to be a man, or unlucky enough to be a man, and if you're lucky enough to live long enough, statistically, you're going to develop a prostate cancer.

Doctor Salant and you have both said that it is a silent developer, and that is the case. Where we are most commonly finding prostate cancers now is at the earliest stage, which we're very grateful to see, as our ability to cure cancers in the earlier, silent stages is much better than in later stages of the development of disease.

PAUL MONIZ: What causes prostate cancer? Do we know?

DANIEL SHASHA, MD: We don't really know. Several factors have been implicated. The most commonly implicated factor is just being a man. Testosterone and promotion of cancer cells. A cancer is simply the unchecked growth of a cell that has the potential to grow locally. But eventually a piece of that cancer, a seed of that cancer may break off and go elsewhere in the body and spread to grow in other parts of the body, causing damage and symptoms elsewhere. So, cancers can do two things: they can grow locally and progress within the prostate gland, as Doctor Salant just demonstrated, causing symptoms of obstruction; or they can spread elsewhere to the body in more advanced stages of the disease.

PAUL MONIZ: Doctor Salant, what about the role of heredity? If an uncle, a father, a brother, has had prostate cancer, does that make you more susceptible?

ROBERT SALANT, MD: There are certain known risk factors for developing prostate cancer, which would put a person in a higher-risk group. Number one, African-American men have a higher incidence of prostate cancer, as well as developing prostate cancer at a younger age.There's plenty of overlap between the white population and the African-American population, but, as a group, the cancer tends to be more virulent and also occurring at a younger age in the African-American population.

This is very important in terms of screening for prostate cancer and getting the message out to the African-American community. Certainly, by the age of 40, they should all be screened for prostate cancer.

In terms of heredity, if somebody has a father or an uncle who has had prostate cancer, they too are in a higher-risk group for prostate cancer, and must be extra-careful about screening for prostate cancer and have a rectal examination done at least once a year, starting at the age of 40, in addition to blood testing for prostate cancer.

PAUL MONIZ: So, it's crucial that they begin the process early.

ROBERT SALANT, MD: Absolutely.

PAUL MONIZ: Men would generally think that the higher their testosterone level is the more virile they are, the more of a man they are. But in this particular instance, it may not be so, in terms of it being healthy.

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