Prostate Cancer risks and treatment

Prostate Cancer | Medical Supply Company

Did you know that 1 in 7 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during their lifetime? Today in Ireland there is no prostate cancer screening programme. Below are some risk factors associated with Prostate Cancer, however, having a risk factor does not necessarily mean you will develop prostate cancer, and sometimes people with no risk factors develop the disease.

Prostate Cancer is the second most common cancer in men after skin cancer.  If discovered early, prostate cancer can be treated successfully.

What can increase my risk of prostate cancer?

Age: As men grow older, the risk of prostate cancer increases. Prostate cancer mainly affects men over the age of 50.

Family history: If an immediate family member (father or brother) has had prostate cancer, you are thought to be 2 times more likely to get this cancer. The risk is higher again if your relative had prostate cancer at a young age or if you have more than one relative from the same side of the family with prostate cancer.

Ethnic group: Men of African-Caribbean descent are more likely to develop prostate cancer, and are more likely to die from it than white men.

Research also suggests that obesity increases the risk of prostate cancer.

How is prostate cancer treated?

For many men with prostate cancer, treatment is not immediately necessary.  If the cancer is at an early stage and not causing symptoms, your doctor may suggest either “watchful waiting” or “active surveillance”.  The best option depends on your age and overall health. Both options involve carefully monitoring your condition.  Some cases of prostate cancer can be cured if treated in the early stages.

Treatments include:

  • surgically removing the prostate
  • radiotherapy – either on its own or alongside hormone therapy

Some cases of prostate cancer are only diagnosed at a later stage when the cancer has spread.

If the cancer spreads to other parts of the body and cannot be cured, treatment is focused on prolonging life and relieving symptoms.

All treatment options carry the risk of significant side effects, including erectile dysfunction and urinary symptoms, such as needing to use the toilet more urgently or more often.

For this reason, some men choose to delay treatment until there’s a risk the cancer might spread.

The Mitomic Prostate Test (MPT™) from MDNA Life Science is a new test kit for clinical use is now available in Ireland.

This CE-IVD market MPT™  assay is a qualitative real-time polymerase chain reaction assay for detection of the 3.4kb mitochondrial DNA deletion in human plasma, from men whose PSA results leave them in the Grey Zone.

The MPT™ is the most accurate way of determining if a patient is at risk of having clinically significant prostate cancer from a simple blood test.  Its high negative predictive value (97-100%) enables a more accurate and informed biopsy decisions independent of PSA result or age.  Therefore, reducing the number of unnecessary biopsies by up to 30%.

For more information on our MDNA Life Sciences products click here

If you would like to get in touch with a product specialist to find out more about the Mitomic® Prostate Test Real-Time PCR Kit CE-IVD please click below to get in touch

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