One in six men in the USA and Canada will need some form of prostate cancer treatment. This is a frightening thought, but countering} it is the information that about 90% of cases of prostate cancer are treated successfully.

Prostate cancers can be cut out, irradiated or otherwise treated. The only precondition for certain success is an early detection. However, even if diagnosis is a bit late, there is still a good chance of recovery, it is just that the cure might be more severe.

Before we go any farther on this issue, I have to warn you that what I am saying is my interpretation of my own research into prostate cancer. I am not a medical doctor; merely an interested party being a male who is beginning to enter the age bracket where the rate of prostate cancer starts to increase. I am over 50.

Prostate cancer is one of the more readily treatable cancers but it is certainly life-threatening. It is a serious disease that will kill you if you do nothing about it. The trick is to catch it early. The earlier you diagnose it, the more easily, more painlessly and more quickly it can be dealt with.

After a swift, simple and painless test, you will be told the likelihood that you have prostate cancer, but this test is not conclusive, you will have to go for further tests to confirm the diagnosis. If the check ups prove that you have cancer, your oncologist or urologist will determine a answer.

These are a couple of the terms used when describing prostate cancer:

Stage One: cancer is discovered only in the prostate

Stage Two: a larger cancer but it is still discovered just within the prostate gland itself

Stage Three: the growth is beginning to spread outside the prostate

Stage Four: the tumor is spreading outside the prostate to a greater extent

Stage Five: the cancer has spread to other regions of the body - metastasis.

Recurrent: the cancer comes back after therapy.

These different stages of prostate cancer might be treated in different methods:

Stage 1: sometimes referred to as localized prostate cancer, the medical doctor may suggest the following treatments: • Wait and see. (Closely monitored) • Radiotherapy • Radical prostatectomy (full removal of the prostate) • Hormone therapy

Stage 2: this is further advanced but still localized within the prostate itself: • Watchful waiting (with elevated monitoring activity) • Radiotherapy (may or may not be conducted with hormone therapy) • Radical prostatectomy (perhaps with hormone therapy or not) • Hormone therapy

Stage 3: the cancer has progressed outside the prostate to nearby tissue: • External-beam radiotherapy (Hormone Therapy or not) • Hormone Therapy • Radical

abstraction of the prostate (possibly hormone therapy or not) • closer monitoring by the doctors

Stage 5: the prostate cancer has metastasized (spread throughout body and bones): • Hormone treatment • External-beam radiotherapy (with or without hormone therapy) • Very closely monitored • Chemotherapy

Recurrence of Prostate Cancer: • Close monitoring • Possibly all of the above treatments

Owen Jones, the author of this article, writes on a variety of subjects, but is now concerned with prostate cancer and radiation treatment. If you want to know more go to What is the Treatment for Prostate Cancer?