As men age, one concern they frequently have is whether they’ll be diagnosed with prostate cancer and, if so, what they can do about it. It’s a legitimate concern: One in seven men in America will be diagnosed with prostate cancer, the most com- mon cancer in the United States outside of skin cancer. Roughly three million American men currently have prostate
cancer, which almost always occurs during midlife or beyond. In fact, according to the Prostate Cancer Foundation (PCF), 97 percent of all cases occur after the age of 50, with 60 percent of cases occurring after the age of 65.
Are You At Risk? As with many types of cancer, the causes of prostate cancer are unclear. However, there are risk factors that make it more likely for some men to develop this disease than others. Men who have a father or brother who has been diagnosed with prostate cancer are twice as likely to develop it, and those with two or more close relatives who have been diagnosed are nearly four times as likely to have it. Men whose family members were diagnosed before the age of 65 are at highest risk, according to the PCF. African-American men are also at much higher risk. They are 56-percent more likely to develop the disease and 2.5 times as likely to die from it than Caucasian men, according to the Nation- al Cancer Institute.
Symptoms
There are often no symptoms during the early stages of prostate cancer. When they do occur, symptoms include difficulty urinat- ing but a frequent need to do so, a burning feeling during urina- tion, difficulty getting an erection or pain during ejaculation and pain or stiffness in the lower back, hips or upper thighs. Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center cautions that many of these symptoms can also be caused by an enlarged prostate gland — a benign condition.
