Because of the PSA test, the DRE, and the fact that men are living longer, the diagnosis of men with prostate cancer is increasing at a galloping rate. In fact, the number of operations for the disease for Medicare patients jumped six fold from about 2,600 in 1984, before the use of the PSA test, to about 16,000 in 1990, and the rate keeps growing. Many doctors wonder if this trend is spinning out of control.
Since not all cases of diagnosed cancer are destined to cause symptoms or impact adversely on the life of the patient, selecting which patient requires treatment and what treatment to use remains an area of increasing controversy. Prostate cancer is certainly a challenge for doctors. It is a disease that they have learned to diagnose long before they have a consensus about whether and how to treat it.
In America, we are fortunate that we have the option to decide whether we want to watch and wait, have surgery, or select a different type of treatment.
This is a time for a very serious, in-depth discussion with your doctor to help you make the right choice from the menu of treatment options. As important as such a discussion is, evidently a gap exists between the perceptions of doctors and those of their patients regarding this process. A poll of urologists and men who had been diagnosed with prostate cancer showed that 99 percent of the urologists recalled discussing the options with their patients, but only 85 percent of the patients recalled having their options delineated. Perhaps the patients were so emotionally impacted by the news of having prostate cancer that they could not retain what was said. It's a good idea for a patient to record the doctor's discussion of his condition and then listen to it after he has ' ad some time to adjust to the realization that he has this disease.
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Men's Health Erectile Dysfunction
