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What is prostate cancer

The prostate cancer is the most frequent cancer of the man. He represents the second reason of mortality by cancer at the man.

These last years, the number of new cases increased considerably in the developing countries because of the diffusion of his tracking, that permits to take encharge the illness in a more precocious way.

Reasons and factors of risk

The cancer of the prostate occurs at the man of more than 45 years. His frequency increases with age. He is quasi-constant among the subjects of 100 years.

An ethnic factor importing exists, and the population the more touched is the African-American population. To the inverse, the cancer of the prostate is very rare at the Asian.

Some genetic factors have been put in evidence in the populations to risk.

Some environmental factors, in particular food, are probably in reason but remain to the survey.

The signs of the illness

Very often, the prostate cancer evolves without the least symptom. Indeed, contrary to the benign hypertrophy (adenoma), the cancer develops itself from afar in periphery of the prostate of the urethra. He is therefore only rarely responsible for urinary unrests.

To a stage evolved locally, the cancer of the prostate can entail urinary unrests: difficulties to urinate, frequent needs, blood in urines.

To a very advanced stage, he can be responsible for pains to the level of the anus and the rectum (by compression of the rectum) or of nephritic gripes (by compression or invasion of an ureter).

To the stage of the metastases he can generate the bony pains and a change of the general state from afar, disgust of food, loss of weight, fatigue.

The consultation

The act important of the consultation in the setting of the tracking of this cancer touch it rectal. Typically, the prostate contains one or several hard nodules, whose contours are irregular then.

A normal rectal touch doesn't eliminate the presence of a cancer because on the one hand some starting cancers are not palpable, and on the other hand the rectal touch doesn't permit to examine the whole gland.