Among men, prostate cancer has become the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in North America, with similar trends in many Western and developing countries. Men in their 70s and older who are diagnosed with early stage prostate cancer can safely watch and wait because they are not likely to die of the prostate cancer. Prostate cancer is the second-leading cancer killer of men after lung cancer. Each year, some 700,000 men worldwide are diagnosed with the disease and about 250,000 die from it. Advanced prostate cancer is a more aggressive type when it occurs in young men, leading to dramatically higher cancer-specific mortality as compared with older men.
   Cancer is when cells in the body grow out of control. Prostate cancer is a group of abnormal cells in the prostate. Prostate cancer can be aggressive, which means it grows quickly and spreads to other parts of the body. When cancer spreads, doctors say the cancer has "metastasized." Or it may be slow growing and stay in the prostate, causing few if any problems. Three out of four cases of prostate cancer are of the slow-growing type that is relatively harmless. Prostate cancer is the most common type of cancer found in American men, other than skin cancer. The American Cancer Society estimates that there are about 200,000 new cases of prostate cancer in the United States each year, and about 30,000 men will die of this disease.
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Natural Options for Prostate Cancer
Prostate cancer is an ideal cancer for natural treatment and prevention intervention, because it grows very slowly, likely for decades, before symptoms arise and a diagnosis is finally established, Exercise, maintaining normal body weight, eating fish, legumes, flaxseed, yellow-orange vegetables and cruciferous vegetables lower prostate cancer risk. Increasing the ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 fatty acids in the diet appears to slow the progression of prostate cancer.
   Intensive lifestyle changes comprising: 1) a low-fat Vegan diet, 2) stress management, 3) moderate aerobic exercise, and 4) regular participation in a support group may affect the progression of early, low grade prostate cancer in men.

Prostate Cancer diet, food, lifestyle
Intake of plant foods and associated nutrients in prostate cancer risk.
Nutr Cancer. 2009. Lewis JE, Soler-Vila H, Clark PE, Kresty LA, Allen GO, Hu JJ. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami, Florida, USA.
Plant foods and associated nutrients may impact prostate cancer risk and survival. Therefore, we compared dietary intake, mainly plant food groups among 382 controls and 478 PC cases. Caucasian controls had significantly higher daily servings of vegetables and fruits and/or fruit juices compared to African American controls. In Caucasians, incident cases reported lower intake of fiber, vitamin C, vitamin A, alpha -carotene, beta -carotene, cryptoxanthin, folate, genistein, daidzein, and fruits and/or fruit juice than controls and/or prevalent cases. In African Americans, incident cases had lower intake of alpha -carotene compared to controls and prevalent cases. Reduced prostate cancer risk was associated with the highest tertile of cryptoxanthin, fiber, vitamin C, and fruits and/or fruit juices, with significant linear trends. Increased risk of prostate cancer was associated with the highest tertile of protein and daily servings of grains with significant linear trends. In summary, we demonstrate racial/ethnic differences in dietary intake of plant foods. The significantly higher consumption of protective dietary constituents among prevalent cases compared to incident cases suggests that prostate cancer survivors may be amenable to dietary change.

Q. What have you found in your research and experience about foods that offset the occurrence and risks of prostate cancer? What are some other good foods to include in a diet for someone looking to prevent or treat their prostate cancer?
   A. We recommend consuming foods with a high fiber level, fruits and vegetables, legumes with high levels of vitamin C, carotenoids, genistein, daidzein, Lycopene, and reducing overall protein intake.

Q. What lifestyle changes can cut the risk or progression of prostate cancer?
   A. Being more physically active, sleeping deeper, taking long walks, and avpoiding the use of hormones such as testosterone can reduce the risk for prostate cancer.

Soy foods
According to a paper in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. An analysis of 14 studies showed that increased intake of soy resulted in a 26 percent reduction in prostate cancer risk. Researchers found a 30 percent risk reduction with consumption of nonfermented soy products such as soymilk and tofu.

Prostate cancer symptom
Prostate cancer often doesn't produce any symptoms in its early stages. That's why many cases of prostate cancer aren't detected until they've spread beyond the prostate and become advanced prostate cancer.
   Since many men now undergo PSA testing, most prostate cancers are now discovered before they cause prostate cancer symptoms. Common prostate cancer symptoms include: Urinary hesitancy or retention; Pain with urination or ejaculation; Blood in the urine; Low back pain; and pain with bowel movement. Please note that most of the symptoms just listed are more often due to benign prostate enlargement, prostatis, or other non-serious causes as opposed to prostate cancer.

Sign of prostate cancer
When signs and symptoms do occur, they may include the following: Dull pain in the lower pelvic area, urgency of urination, difficulty starting urination, pain during urination, weak urine flow and dribbling, intermittent urine flow, a sensation that your bladder isn't empty, frequent urination at night. As you may guess, many of these signs and symptoms could be due to benign prostate hypertrophy. However, when the following signs and symptoms occur, the risk becomes higher for prostate cancer: blood in your urine, painful ejaculation, general pain in your lower back, hips or upper thighs, loss of appetite and weight, persistent bone pain in its early stages.
   Many cases of prostate cancer aren't detected until they've spread beyond the prostate.

Prostate cancer cause
The cause of prostate cancer is not fully known, but hormonal, genetic, environmental, and dietary factors are thought to play roles. The following risk factors have been linked with development of this condition:
   Age: There is a strong correlation between increasing age and developing prostate cancer. More than 80% of prostate cancers are diagnosed in men older than 65 years. Autopsy records indicate that 70% of men older than 90 years have at least one region of cancer in their prostate.
   Race: African American men are 2 times more likely than white men to develop prostate cancer.
   Genetic factors: Men who have a history of prostate cancer in their family are at an increased risk.
   Diet: A diet high in fat and low in vegetables has been associated with an increased risk. Adding arachidonic acid, a common omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acid, to culture media causes prostate cancer cells to grow twice as fast. Prostate cancer patients who are obese seem to have more aggressive tumors. Charred meat from barbeques can increase the risk for prostate cancer.
   Hormone use: Men who take testosterone or other androgen hormones may be at increased risk for prostate cancer. So does human growth hormone. HGH raises blood levels of another hormone, insulin-like growth factor, which preliminary evidence indicates may promote prostate cancer.
   Shift work - men who rotate shifts at work are more likely to get prostate cancer. This may be due to reduced release of melatonin and possibly additional factors.
   Sexually transmitted diseases are a cause of prostate cancer. Men with a history of the sexually transmitted disease gonorrhea may face a higher risk of prostate cancer. Chronic inflammation in the prostate gland, caused by infection, may over time promote tumor development.

Prostate Cancer and masturbation
Australian researchers questioned over 1,000 men who had developed prostate cancer and 1,250 who had not about their sexual habits. They found those who had ejaculated the most between the ages of 20 and 50 were the least likely to develop the cancer.

Prostate cancer and obesity
Men who are overweight or obese at the time they are diagnosed with prostate cancer are nearly twice as likely to die from their disease after treatment as men who are not overweight or obese.

Prostate cancer prevention
Eat a variety of fruits and vegetables, reduce the intake of white bread, high intake of meats and saturated fat, reduce or eliminate smoking, reduce stress, sleep well, exercise, avoid unnecessary hormone use, particularly androgens, eat more flax and fish oil.
   Greater consumption of dark green and cruciferous vegetables, especially broccoli and cauliflower, is associated with a decreased risk of aggressive prostate cancer.
   A compound formed when meat is charred at high temperatures -- as in barbecue -- encourages the growth of prostate cancer in rats. The compound, called PhIP, is formed when meat is cooked at very high temperatures. It appears to both initiate and promote the growth of prostate cancer in rats.

Prostate cancer screening
The value of mass screening for prostate cancer is controversial. There is little or no evidence that organized prostate cancer screening programs improve survival. However, the use of prostate specific antigen PSA test for individual screening has become very frequent. The frequent use of PSA is the main cause for the apparent increase in the incidence of prostate cancer, which has become the most frequent male cancer in recent years. The main problem with screening for prostate cancer is that available tests do not have very good sensitivity or specificity for aggressive tumors, while the adverse effects of treatment may be excessive in patients with less aggressive forms.

Feb 2010
The American Cancer Society has asked doctors to inform their male patients that the PSA test used to screen for prostate cancer may lead to unnecessary treatments that do more harm than good. It also says digital rectal exams should be an option rather than part of a standard screening. American men have long been urged to have prostate cancer screenings, but over time studies have suggested that most cancers found are so slow-growing that most men could have avoided treatment. The treatments can lead to incontinence or impotence. The American Cancer Society suggests doctors stop giving the rectal exam as a standard prostate cancer screening because it has not clearly shown a benefit, though it can remain an option.

March 2009, screening questioned
A study following more than 75,000 men for over a decade found that prostate cancer screenings led to more diagnoses but did not reduce the number of deaths from the illness. The National Cancer Institute's findings question the idea that routine prostate screenings reduce cancer-caused deaths. The Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial may help doctors decide to advise their patients who do not wish to be screened that perhaps this option is okay. Since the early 1990s, controversy about the effectiveness of prostate cancer screening has persisted in the medical community. Although some doctors recommend annual testing, others remain skeptical, citing lack of evidence and the risk of common side effects of treatment, such as impotence and incontinence.
In the trial, half of the 76,700 men were assigned to 10 years of annual screenings. The remaining were assigned to get their usual health care without any recommendations for or against annual prostate exams. After a decade, the rate of death from prostate cancer did not differ significantly between the two study groups. Many men are being overdiagnosed and overtreated. A suspicious PSA result leads to a biopsy and then a possible diagnosis of prostate cancer, which could mean aggressive treatments that produce side effects such as urinary incontinence and sexual dysfunction. In addition, men become anxious, nervous, and overly worried about each test and treatment. Medical expenses are increased which places more stress on men if they do not have good health plans.

Prostate specific antigen test - PSA
There is controversy regarding the use of the PSA test. It has not been proved that older men would benefit from getting a prostate specific antigen test since prostate cancer is such a slow growing tumor. A prostate exam using a finger can give a strong clue of a potential cancer when done by an experienced doctor.
   The standard PSA test produces many false positives and false negatives — meaning some men who think they do not have cancer actually do, while others may undergo uncomfortable biopsies only to learn there is no tumor after all.
   The time it takes for prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels to double can help predict the clinical outcome of patients with prostate cancer who have been treated with combined radiation and hormone therapy, researchers report in the International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology, Physics. Brief PSA doubling time can predict apparent prostate cancer recurrence. Those who take finasteride, also known as Propecia and Proscar, need to have their PSA test number doubled to make the interpretation of the PSA number more accurate.

Is screening for prostate cancer with PSA test necessary?
Screening older men for prostate cancer -- with a PSA blood test or by a doctor's exam -- may actually do more harm than good. Prostate cancer normally grows very slowly. If untreated, older men with screen-detected prostate disease are more likely to die with prostate cancer rather than from it.
   Dr. Richard M. Hoffman, from the New Mexico VA Health Care System evaluated 465 men, between 75 and 84 years of age, who underwent aggressive or conservative treatment for localized prostate cancer. The 175 men in the aggressive treatment group underwent prostate surgery or radiation therapy. The conservative management group included the remaining 290 patients who received hormone therapy or no treatment. Aggressive treatment had little impact on the prostate cancer survival rate. The absolute difference in prostate cancer survival over 5 years was similar in both treatment groups. The majority of all deaths -- 80 percent -- were not due to prostate cancer. At 2-year follow-up, aggressive treatment was more likely to interfere with quality of life than was conservative management. Those treated with aggressive therapy were three times more likely to report daily urinary leakage and complain of sexual problems.
   We think that men over the age of 75 or 80 don't really need to be evaluated for prostate cancer unless perhaps they are extremely healthy and have no other illness.

Additional Prostate Cancer Tests
Low levels of a protein called AZGP1 (for zinc-alpha2-glycoprotein) in prostate cancer biopsy specimens indicate that the cancer is likely to spread to other sites in the body after removal of the prostate.

Watchful waiting for prostate cancer
It's possible to identify men with slowly progressive or latent prostate cancer, reflected by prostate specific antigen (PSA) levels that remain stable or fall over time. These men are good candidates for a "watchful waiting" approach to managing their prostate cancer. In other words, such patients can be monitored regularly and only treated if their prostate cancer progresses.

Use of prescription medications
Dutasteride and finasteride are currently accepted by the medical establishment for use in prostate cancer risk reduction. The brand names are Avodart and Proscar, respectively.

prostate cancer