Prostate cancer generally affects men over the age of 50, and this prostate cancer is rarely found in younger men. Around 32,000 men in the UK are diagnosed with prostate cancer each year. Prostate cancer is differs from most other cancers in the body, in that small areas of cancer within the prostate are very common and may not grow or cause any problems for many years.
About one in three men over the age of 50 have some cancer cells within their prostate and nearly all men over the age of 80 have a small area of prostate cancer. Most of these cancers grow extremely slowly and so, particularly in elderly men, will never cause any problems.
In a small proportion of men, the prostate cancer can grow more quickly and in some cases may spread to other parts of the body, particularly the bones.
The organs and tissues of the body are made up of tiny building blocks called cells. Cancer is a disease of these cells.
Cells in different parts of the body may look and work differently but most reproduce themselves in the same way. Cells are constantly becoming old and dying, and new cells are produced to replace them. Normally, cells divide in an orderly and controlled manner. If for some reason the process gets out of control, the cells carry on dividing, developing into a lump which is called a tumour.
Two diagrams, one showing normal cells and the second showing cells forming a tumour.
Tumours can be either benign or malignant. Cancer is the name given to a malignant tumour. Doctors can tell if a tumour is benign or malignant by examining a small sample of cells under a microscope. This is called a biopsy.
In a benign tumour the cells do not spread to other parts of the body and so are not cancerous. However, if they continue to grow at the original site, they may cause a problem by pressing on the surrounding organs.
A malignant tumour consists of cancer cells that have the ability to spread beyond the original area. If the tumour is left untreated, it may spread into and destroy surrounding tissue. Sometimes cells break away from the original (primary) cancer. They may spread to other organs in the body through the bloodstream or lymphatic system.
The lymphatic system is part of the immune system - the body's natural defence against infection and disease. It is a complex system made up of organs, such as bone marrow, the thymus, the spleen, and lymph nodes. The lymph nodes (or glands) throughout the body are connected by a network of tiny lymphatic ducts.
When the cancer cells reach a new area they may go on dividing and form a new tumour. This is known as a secondary cancer or metastasis.
It is important to realise that cancer is not a single disease with a single type of treatment. There are more than 200 different kinds of cancer, each with its own name and treatment.
http://www.cancerbackup.org.uk/Aboutcancer/Whatiscancer/Whatiscancer
Obese patients appear to be more likely to receive non-surgical treatments than their normal-weight counterparts
By Amanda Gardner
Sunday, October 5 (HealthDay News) -- Men who are overweight and who have high insulin levels when they are diagnosed with prostate cancer may be more likely to die from the disease, research shows.
This striking finding, published early online and expected to be in the November issue of The Lancet Oncology, is yet more reason to continue fighting the battle of the bulge, experts say.
"I don't want to be sensationalist, but obesity effects and the insulin effects are so big that I think if you had to choose between being thin and having a low insulin level or having access to the best chemotherapy, you would be more likely to survive without chemotherapy," said study senior author Dr. Michael Pollak, professor of oncology at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
"Tens of thousands of men are taking chemotherapy for prostate cancer -- as they should, because it is a good treatment. Doing so is actually helping," he said. "But potentially, dealing with insulin, obesity may one day be of more benefit."
The findings also have scientific import, giving researchers a clue that could lead to new prevention and treatment strategies.
Experts have long known that androgens, or male hormones, play a critical role in spurring prostate cancer.
In fact, these cancers are often treated with approaches that deprive the tumors of testosterone.
Smaller reports have suggested that obese patients with prostate cancer have a worse prognosis than patients of regular weight, though weight hasn't been related to actually developing a malignancy.
"We found in a large sample that obesity has a very important influence on prostate cancer outcome," Pollak said. "Then the question becomes, why would obesity make the outcome worse?"
Pollak and his colleagues looked at information on more than 2,500 men who had been followed for 24 years as part of the Physicians' Health Study. Information on body mass index (BMI) was available for all of these men, while information on C-peptide concentration (a marker of insulin levels in the blood) was available for 827 men.
Overweight men (those with a BMI of 25 to 29) had a 47 percent higher risk of dying from prostate cancer, while obese men (BMI of 30 or over) were more than two-and-a-half times more likely to die of the disease, compared with men of healthy weight (BMI under 25).
Men with the highest C-peptide concentrations also had more than double the risk of dying from their cancer compared with men with the lowest levels, the study found.
Finally, men who had a BMI of more than 25 and high C-peptide concentrations had quadruple the risk of dying from their cancer compared with men who had lower BMIs and lower C-peptide levels, the researchers reported.
"This suggests that there may be a whole new story to tell, whereby not just androgens have something to do with cancer behavior, but also insulin," Pollak said.
The insulin hormone may be latching onto insulin receptors located on prostate cancer cells, he speculated.
Some pharmaceutical companies are already testing drug candidates that target insulin signaling, Pollak added.
And the findings could have broader implications for other cancers, said study lead author Dr. Jing Ma, of Harvard University's Channing Laboratory.
"The simple things are still the important things. Don't drink, don't smoke, exercise, and eat well," said Dr. Ganesh Palapattu, assistant professor of urology, pathology and oncology at the University of Rochester School of Medicine. "This is yet another piece of evidence suggesting that obesity is not a good thing for many reasons."
"Obesity is the second leading cause of cancer death in this country next to tobacco," emphasized Dr. Jay Brooks, chief of hematology/oncology at Ochsner Health System in Baton Rouge, La. "Two years ago, I would never have told my patients that obesity is increasing their risk of death from cancer. Today, I do."
Source http://www.prostatecancerfoundation.org
