Before beginning this outline, let me first say that this information is presented from a traditional, conventional approach to the treatment of prostate cancer, not alternative which is what I advocate. These are processes which one can expect if receiving conventional treatment.
Prostate cancer is a disease in which cancer develops in the prostate, a gland in the male reproductive system. It may cause pain, difficulty in urinating, erectile dysfunction and other symptoms and is most often discovered by PSA (prostate specific antigen) screening and less commonly by physical examination or by symptoms.
Prostate cancer is uncommon in men less than 45, but becomes more common with advancing age and the risk can be decreased by modifying known risk factors, such as decreasing intake of animal fat. Prostate cancer is the ninth most common cancer in the world, but is the number one non-skin cancer in United States men.
(more…)
In my clinic, American Diseases of the Prostate, as in any clinic that sees a large number of prostate cancer patients, I’ve encountered prostate cancers
that deviate from the well-established behavior of the common adenocarcinoma. One of those unusual forms of prostate cancer is neuroendocrine carcinoma.
Neuroendocrine cells are found in the normal prostate gland, where they have been shown to produce a range of hormones including serotonin, bombesin, and calcitonin. However, we do not know the role these neuroendocrine cells play in normal prostate biology. In the standard adenocarcinoma of the prostate gland, neuroendocrine cells are nearly always found scattered throughout the cancer mass. In this setting, these neuroendocrine cells do not make PSA, are not growing and do not have the androgen receptor. In the test tube, even though the neuroendocrine cells do not grow, the hormones produced by these cells are capable of fueling the growth of the adenocarcinoma cells. One report claimed that in the prostate cancer specimens obtained at surgery, the prostate cancer cells near the neuroendocrine cells were growing more rapidly than those distant from these cells. This suggests that the neuroendocrine cells might fuel prostate cancer progression. In fact, the larger the proportion of the cancer mass composed of neuroendocrine cells at diagnosis, the more likely the patient would do poorly over time.
(more…)
