How often should men be checked for prostate cancer?
Prostate cancer is the leading cancer in men in the US. More than 80% of the prostate cancer cases are in men age 65 and older. How often men should be checked for prostate cancer, depends largely on their age and if there is any prostate cancer history in their family.
Early detection is the reason for regular prostate cancer exams. With early detection prostate cancer can be cured and men can continue to live for years. There are two checkups that men will need to have. There is the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) blood test and the digital rectal examination (DRE). Both of these need to be done annually for men beginning at age 50.
Early detection of prostate cancer is very pivotal. Prostate cancer will grow quickly and spread to other parts of the body. Once the prostate cancer has spread, treatment is much more difficult. Visiting the doctor yearly to get the PSA and the DRE checkups will help detect the prostate cancer.
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There are acceptations to getting the exams yearly beginning at age 50. A man who has a family history of prostate cancer will need to go in earlier and possibly more often. If a man has a brother or father that was diagnosed with prostate cancer before the age of 65, then he should go in to the doctor's office and get a checkup beginning at age 45. This first exam and the results will determine when a man needs to come back. Many time the man will need to be checked ever 2-5 years if the results are in his favor.
If a man has a family history where more than one relative, like a father or brother has been diagnosed with prostate cancer, he will need to go in and get the PSA and the DRE checkups at the age of 40. This is to help catch any possible cancerous cells before they have the chance to spread.
The risk of prostate cancer will only increase with age. The older a man is the more he should talk to his doctor about how often he needs to be checked for prostate cancer. Prostate cancer can have no symptoms until it reaches its advanced stages.
It is also important to try and go to the same doctor for each exam, if at all possible. Routine exams by a doctor have increased the cancer screenings to help prevent prostate cancer. Men are becoming more and more aware of the need for early detection of prostate cancer. Prostate cancer screening has increase from 21% to 57% in men who get regular exams from their physicians.
It was estimated that there would be 218,890 men in the US diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2007. It is also estimated that 27,000 men will die from prostate cancer. There are many men that will live long after they are diagnosed and treated. There are even men who will be diagnosed and not treated and live for years then die from another cause. Currently in the US about 90% of all prostate cancers are being diagnosed at early stages and men are surviving longer after they are diagnosed.
How often a man gets a check up for prostate cancer depends largely on his age. Men should start their checkups at the age of 50. There are two exams, the PSA and the DRE that should be done yearly. These exams will need to be started earlier in a mans life if he has a history of prostate cancer. The exams are not perfect, but they do help with early detection of prostate cancer, thus helping with early treatment.
