Prostate cancer is a type of cancer that occurs in the prostate, a small walnut-shaped gland in men that generates seminal fluid that nourishes and transports sperm. It is one of the most prevalent types of cancer in men. The disease usually develops gradually and is initially confined to the prostate gland, where it scarcely causes harm. Prostate cancer starts when some cells in your cells become abnormal (Moyer, 2014). Mutations in the abnormal DNA of the cells may cause the cells to develop and segment more quickly than normal cells. These abnormal cells may create a tumor that grows to invade nearby tissue. This paper seeks to examine prostate cancer in men and further reflect on how certain factors impacts decisions that are related to cancer preventative services. The paper will further describe drug treatment options for patients diagnosed with prostate cancer.
One of the notable factors that may affect decisions related to preventative services of cancer is genetics. Mutations in the DNA portion known as BRCA2 gene escalate the risk of getting prostate cancer. However, very few cases of prostate cancer can directly present identifiable genetic changes. HPC1, DNA mismatch, RNASEL, and BRCA1 are some of the inherited genes that are associated with an increased risk of prostate cancer. Ethnicity is another factor that affects decisions that are related to preventive services of prostate cancer. In America, more than 60 percent of the African-American happen to have prostate cancer as compared to white American men (Bibbins-Domingo, 2016). On the other hand, African and Japanese men living in their native countries have decreased rates of prostate cancer. The number of these groups is said to increase when these men migrate to the United States. Therefore, African-American needs to start prostate cancer tests as early as 50 years.
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As opined by Chou et al (2015), the treatment options for an individual diagnosed with prostate cancer depend on different factors such as how much it has spread, how fast cancer is growing as well as the benefits or side effects of the treatment. Drug treatment options for prostate cancer are normally carried out in hormone therapy. Hormone therapy is a treatment to stop the body from generating testosterone. Medications such as luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone (LR-RH) agonists prevent testicles from receiving messages to produce testosterone. The drugs used in this kind of hormone treatment include goserelin (Zoladex), leuprolide (Lupron, Eligard) and histrelin (Vantas). Some of the drugs used in this case include abiraterone (Zytiga) and ketoconazole.
Apart from medications that stop the body from producing testosterone, there are other medications known as anti-androgens that prevent testosterone from reaching cancer cells. The anti-androgens drug includes bicalutamide (Casodex), nilutamide (Nilandron) and flutamide. Enzalutamide (Xtandi) is an option that is used when other hormone therapies are no longer effective. Another treatment option for prostate cancer is biological therapy. This type of therapy utilizes the immune system of fight cancer cells. Sipuleucel (Provenge) is a biological therapy that is used to treat advanced and recurrent prostate cancer. Some treatments include freezing prostate tissue and chemotherapy.
There are numerous short-term and long-term implications of prostate cancer treatments. The short-term implications of cancer include skin irritation, fatigue, and irritation to the rectal and urinary tract tissue as well as reduced blooding counts. Long-term complications of prostate cancer include erectile dysfunction. Erectile dysfunction may happen after radiation therapy. Some treatment of prostate cancer makes men sterile. The other long-term implication of prostate cancer treatments is incontinence. Incontinence can become a long term implication due to the growth of scar tissue in the areas that manage urine flow.
References
Bibbins-Domingo, K., Grossman, D. C., Curry, S. J., Davidson, K. W., Epling, J. W., García, F. A., ... & Kurth, A. E. (2016). Screening for prostate cancer: US Preventive Services Task Force recommendation statement. Jama , 315 (23), 2564-2575.
Chou, R., Croswell, J. M., Dana, T., Bougatsos, C., Blazina, I., Fu, R., ... & Rugge, J. B. (2015). Screening for prostate cancer: a review of the evidence for the US Preventive Services Task Force. Annals of internal medicine , 155 (11), 762-771. Retrieved from https://annals.org/aim/article-abstract/1033197 on 3rd August 2019
Moyer, V. A. (2014). Screening for prostate cancer: US Preventive Services Task Force recommendation statement. Annals of internal medicine , 157 (2), 120-134..
