Post Date December, 03 2023
Prostate cancer is a common malignant tumor of male reproductive system. The incidence rate of prostate cancer is very different at home and abroad. The incidence rate of prostate cancer in Europe and the United States is relatively high, while the incidence rate of prostate cancer in the East is relatively low. However, in recent years, the incidence rate in China has an upward trend. It is estimated that about 40% of men over the age of 50 have a small area of cancer in the prostate. However, only 8% of men will develop clinically into noteworthy diseases, and only 3% will die from this disease. In most cases, prostate cancer develops slowly in older men and does not cause death.
The treatment of prostate cancer mainly includes surgical treatment, hormone treatment, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, immunotherapy, etc. The specific method should be determined according to the patient's age, general condition, local scope of cancer and metastasis.
(1) Endocrine and adrenal drug therapy: At present, endocrine therapy has been the main treatment for prostate cancer, especially for advanced prostate cancer. 1) Estrogen drugs; 2) Anti-androgen drugs, including steroids and non-steroids; 3) Gonadotropin releasing hormone analogue (GnRH-A); 4) Anti-adrenal drugs.
(2) Surgical treatment: 1) radical resection of prostate cancer, including prostate gland and prostate capsule; 2) Pelvic lymphadenectomy; 3) Transurethral prostatectomy is mainly used to relieve bladder neck obstruction.
(3) The surgical treatment of prostate cancer by reducing the endocrine androgen testosterone: 1) orchiectomy, often combined with other treatment methods, can achieve better therapeutic effect; 2) Adrenalectomy and hypophysectomy, which have poor clinical effect and great damage to patients, have not been used at present.
(4) Immunotherapy: When the prostate cancer tissue of the patient is reduced to a very small amount by other treatment methods, immunotherapy can remove a small amount of residual cancer tissue in the body, which may achieve better results.
(5) Radiotherapy: It has been more than 60 years since the use of radiation to treat prostate cancer. The main methods are as follows: 1) external radiotherapy; 2) Intra-tissue radiotherapy, which is often combined with radical prostatectomy or pelvic lymphadenectomy; 3) Systemic radiotherapy: to some extent, it can relieve the local pain of bone metastasis and alleviate the development of the disease.
(6) Chemotherapy: Chemotherapy of prostate cancer was used in clinical practice in 1973. Many scholars believe that the effect of the combination of two drugs is better than that of one drug alone.
(7) Frozen prostate cancer treatment: This method is applicable to patients with large prostate tumors and poor general condition, which can promote the patient's immune ability and make the bone, lung and other metastatic lesions degenerate. Due to the need for special equipment, it has not been widely used.
Prostate cancer accounts for about 4% of urogenital system tumors. It is one of the most common cancers among the elderly men. Prostate cancer almost always occurs in the lateral part of the prostate, which shows latent slow growth. Therefore, the tumor is very small without any clinical manifestations. The symptoms of benign prostatic enlargement and prostatitis are similar to those of cancer. Prostate cancer may be related to age, high fat, vasectomy, genetic factors, smoking, heavy metal exposure, inappropriate sexual life and sexually transmitted diseases.
(Intern editor: Huang Jiazhen)
