Symptoms of Prostate Cancer
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Prostate cancer symptoms depend on the stage of the prostate cancer. Many prostate cancers are diagnosed at the time of benign prostatic hypertrophy related prostate resection. In these patients there are no prostate cancer symptoms.

The most common early prostate cancer symptoms are similar to symptoms that occur because of an enlarged prostate. These include difficulty with initiating urination or maintaining a good urinary stream. In these men it can take an extended period of time to urinate. However, these symptoms are not specific to prostate cancer and can occur in men with an enlarged prostate who don’t have cancer.


Patients can have other prostate cancer symptoms which are not specific and include blood in the urine (hematuria) and recurrent urinary tract infections.


If the prostate cancer is more advanced, prostate cancer symptoms can include bone pain, lower extremity swelling, back pain, spinal cord compression, pathologic bone fractures, and abdominal swelling.

Because these symptoms are so non-specific, many people will recommend using yearly digital rectal exams to palpate the prostate in addition to a yearly PSA (prostate specific antigen). The PSA is a simple blood test. You can find more information about the PSA by reading our questions and answers on the labs page. The only way to definitively diagnose prostate cancer is to do a prostate biopsy.

 
To view information about symptoms of Prostate Cancer go to our Prostate Cancer questions and answers page.
To view specific information about topics related to Prostate Cancer symptoms go to our Topics page.
To view laboratory abnormalities go to our Labs page.
To view the side effects of medication associated with the treatment of Prostate Cancer go to our Pharmacology page.
To search Flash-Med's questions and answers for your key words go to our Q&A Search page.
To view the and differential diagnosis of Prostate Cancer symptoms go to our Medicine Methods page.

Symptoms of Prostate Cancer often do not lead directly to the underlying diagnosis and many symptoms can be misleading. Please review all concerns and information found on this website with your health care provider.