Monday, October 4, 2010

prostate cancer what if your prostate cancer spreads to your spine

prostate cancer what if your prostate cancer spreads to your spine?

Cancer - 4 Answers
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1 :
then youll have cancer in your spine.
2 :
Once cancer spreads or metastasizes to another location (like the spine) the prognosis is not as good and the cancer becomes more difficult to treat. There are therapies that can help decrease pain however a cure at this stage is unlikely.
3 :
When prostate cancer spreads to the bones of the back and presses on the spinal cord the results can be severe, including paralysis of the legs and loss of use of the bladder. These problems may be avoided if the spread of the tumor is treated before symptoms develop, according to a report in the journal Cancer . The authors of the study, Andrew Bayley, MD, and colleagues from the departments of radiation oncology and medical imaging at the Princess Margaret Hospital and the University of Toronto, Canada, report that 10% of men with prostate cancer develop signs and symptoms of tumor pressing on the spinal cord. When the problem is recognized early, and the patients are still able to walk, almost all of them are treated successfully. However, once paralysis sets in, only one out of 20 patients recover use of his legs, even with immediate treatment. The authors say a patient with prostate cancer who develops any weakness in the legs or difficulty urinating, whether or not there are any findings on a bone scan or they are receiving hormonal therapy, should see his physician immediately. This is the only way known to decrease the possibility of potentially severe paralysis, once symptoms occur, if prostate cancer is pressing on the spinal cord. In their study, the authors looked at 68 patients ranging in age from 50 to 84 years old. Sixty-four of the patients were already receiving hormone treatment. Spread of the tumor to the bones of the back had already been diagnosed in all of the men, but none had symptoms to suggest that the tumor had either spread to the spinal cord or was pressing on the cord itself. All of the men had a bone scan, a plain x-ray of the back and an MRI scan of the spine as part of the study. In 22 of the 68 patients, there was evidence on the MRI scan of tumor either near the cord (12 patients) or pressing on the cord itself (10 patients). None of these men knew the tumor was present in this location before the MRI scan was completed. Interestingly, back pain, a common symptom of prostate cancer when it spreads to the spine, did not predict whether or not the tumor was pressing on the cord. The authors concluded that, with early treatment, these men may be spared serious problems. The authors recommend that, when considering the balance of benefits and risks, nearly all patients who have early compression should be treated with radiation therapy.
4 :
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