Guide aims to help men understand prostate cancer

Men with Prostate cancer are living three times longer than they were 20 years ago because of early detection and better treatment, but they have little information on how to cope with it, a report said on Thursday.

Despite good detection and treatment options, about 30,000 people will die of Prostate cancer in the United States this year, according to the report by the nonprofit Prostate cancer Foundation.

The five-year survival rate for Prostate cancer diagnosed at any stage is 98 percent, the report said. This compared to just over 59 percent in the early 1980s and 64 percent in the late 1980s.

About 84 percent of men diagnosed with Prostate cancer are alive at 10 years and 56 percent at 15 years.

Since the cancer is often slow-growing and can be detected early, men have the option of living with it for years or even decades. That prompted the foundation to release the first comprehensive guide to Prostate cancer for men, their families and doctors.

"We need this because 230,000 men are diagnosed with Prostate cancer every year," said Leslie Michelson, chief executive officer of the Prostate Cancer Foundation.

"There is an explosion of information."

The cause of prostate cancer is unknown, although some studies have shown a relationship between high dietary fat intake and increased testosterone levels. When testosterone levels are lowered either by surgical removal of the testicles (castration, orchiectomy) or by medication, prostate cancer can regress. There is no known association with Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH).

Women with Breast cancer have the option of seeing a team of experts - an oncologist or cancer expert, a surgeon, and a radiologist - to discuss treatment and other issues. And there are clear treatment guidelines for most cancers - often surgery, followed by chemotherapy in some cases, radiation in others.

But men with Prostate cancer often consult directly with their urologist, who may or may not have expertise in treating Prostate cancer.

Diagnosis is not always easy because the blood test used looks for a compound called prostate-specific antigen that is usually, but not always, elevated when a man has cancer.