Prostate cancer and colorectal cancer are two of the most common cancer diagnoses among American men, and they’re also the two men are least eager to talk about.
It’s important to speak up early if you experience symptoms, because screening and treatment are available for both diseases.
When caught early, both prostate cancer and colorectal cancer patients typically have excellent outcomes with treatment from an expert team like Regional One Health Cancer Care.
Two of the most common cancers in men are also two they’re least eager to discuss.
Among American men, there are nearly 290,000 cases of prostate cancer and 82,000 cases of colorectal cancer diagnosed every year. Unfortunately, symptoms like difficulty urinating, rectal bleeding, and blood in the stool are tough to talk about.
Regional One Health Cancer Care makes it easy to get the care you need. We’ve put screening, multidisciplinary treatment, and surveillance appointments all in one spot to make it convenient and comfortable for patients.
Prostate cancer
Over their lifetime, about 13 of every 100 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer and 9 out of 10 experience urinary issues. Therefore, it’s important to be aware of urinary symptoms, but also not to panic. Most of the time, it isn’t cancer.
Still, talk to your provider about difficulty starting, weak flow, increased frequency, and pain or burning. Blood in the urine and worsening back pain can also be signs.
Doctors can screen for prostate cancer with a simple blood draw. When the disease is caught early, it can be cured via minimally invasive surgery or radiation treatment.
Your provider can test your Prostate-Specific Antigen level via blood draw. If it’s elevated, they may recommend a biopsy.
If you’re diagnosed with cancer early and it’s confined to the prostate, we can often cure it with minimally invasive surgery or radiation. These treatments typically have manageable side effects and fairly easy recoveries.
When prostate cancer spreads to the bones or liver, it is not curable, but we can stop additional spread through chemotherapy and hormone therapy.
That’s why it’s so important to speak up early about symptoms. Our screening tools make early detection very possible, and many men survive prostate cancer if it’s caught before it spreads.
Colorectal cancer
With colorectal cancer, early detection is just as important – in fact, we can cure or even prevent the disease altogether.
It starts with getting screening colonoscopies starting at age 45 and watching for changes in your bowel habits like diarrhea, constipation, oddly shaped stool, or blood in the stool, all of which can signal colon cancer. Rectal bleeding may be a sign of rectal cancer.
A colonoscopy can not only diagnosis colorectal cancer, it can allow doctors to remove cancerous and pre-cancerous polyps to treat or prevent the disease. Average-risk patients should have their first colonoscopy at age 45.
We understand those topics aren’t fun and that most people dread colonoscopies. But the test takes just 15-30 minutes, and you’re asleep the whole time. Even the prep has gotten easier, with more options for the solution you drink to clear out your bowels.
Remember, colonoscopies are both diagnostic and therapeutic, and patients who catch colorectal cancer early have excellent outcomes.
If we find a polyp during your colonoscopy, we can remove it immediately, and that may be the only treatment you need. Some patients need additional surgery for localized colorectal cancer, and their outcomes are generally very good.
However, if the disease spreads to the lymph nodes, you’ll likely need chemotherapy along with surgery; and colorectal cancer that spreads to the liver or lungs is even harder to treat.
Learn more
Medical oncologist Bilawal Ahmed, MD specializes in treating prostate cancer, and medical oncologist Saurin Chokshi, MD is a colorectal cancer specialist.