Doctors of USC

They are two words every man is afraid of: prostate cancer. Because of the fear of cancer-or the fear of the effects of the cancer's treatment-many men avoid the very simple steps they can take to diagnose it.

It is an important issue to men and their families: about half of all men at age 80 have prostate cancer, says Jeffry Huffman, M.D., urologist at the University of Southern California. But Huffman says regular blood tests for prostate-specific antigen, or PSA, and physical exams of the prostate by a doctor (through the rectum) once a year can usually quickly rule out prostate cancer and let men breathe a little easier.

"And when prostate cancer is diagnosed, we are diagnosing it earlier because of the blood test," Huffman says.

When doctors discover the cancer early, it has not had a chance to spread outside the prostate through the lymphatic system or to bones or other organs. That makes the tumor, an adenocarcinoma, very curable, Huffman says. Of men diagnosed with early tumors confined to the prostate in the United States, about 80 percent are alive seven years later-a high survival rate for cancer.

The prostate is a male sex gland and is about the size of a walnut. It is located below the bladder and in front of the rectum and produces certain hormones. Often, patients found with early cancer in the prostate feel completely fine and have had no symptoms, he notes.

But some symptoms include needing to urinate frequently, difficulty starting urination or holding back urine, an inability to urinate, pain or burning during urination, blood in urine or semen, painful ejaculation or frequent pain or stiffness in the lower back, hips or upper thighs.

Doctors note that these symptoms can be caused by other less serious health problems, too, so it is important to have them checked out. Who needs exams? Well, Huffman says every man over 50 should be checked once a year.

But if a man has a family history of prostate cancer, he should begin regular exams at age 40. African-Americans, who have the highest rate of prostate cancer among ethnic groups, also should begin regular exams by age 40, he says.

Among Latin American countries, Uruguay, Costa Rica, Cuba and Puerto Rico have above-average mortality rates for prostate cancer (ranging from 16.1 deaths in every 100,000 men annually for Puerto Rico to 19.0 deaths in every 100,000 men annually for Uruguay). Mexico and Ecuador have lower-than-average mortality rates (between nine and 10 deaths for every 100,000 men a year), according to National Institutes of Health statistics for the late 1980s.