If prostate cancer is suspected, your doctor will likely want to schedule a blood test to determine the amount of PSA in your blood, as well as conduct a biopsy. A prostate biopsy is usually performed by a urologist, who removes samples of tissue from your prostate with a needle and the visual help of a transrectal ultrasound.

If cancer is detected, it must then be graded. Most doctors use the Gleason system, which assigns a number from 1 to 5 depending on how much the cancerous cells look like normal cells, with 1 indicating a group of normal-looking cells and 5 classifying a group of cells that look abnormal. Grades are assigned to the two areas of the prostate that contain most of the cancerous cells and are added together to obtain a Gleason score. The higher the score, the more aggressive the cancer could be.

How is it treated?
There are several treatment options with which to combat prostate cancer, but some men with the slow-growing variety choose no treatment at all. The term “watchful waiting” describes the decision to forgo treatment, but still keep tabs on the cancer.

This route is sometimes chosen by older men for whom the treatment’s side effects represent more of a health risk than the cancer itself or by men who don’t want to deal with the possible side effects of treatment. Often, men with slow-growing prostate cancer have about the same life expectancy as those without cancer.

If you decide to pursue treatment, you have several options:

Radical prostatectomy: Removal of the prostate gland can be a very effective treatment option, but having to recuperate for weeks and endure possible side effects like incontinence and impotence causes many men to shy away from it.

Radiation: It can be just as effective as RP and the recovery time is shorter, but radiation treatment is also linked to impotence.

Hormone therapy: Lowering testosterone levels can slow the progression of some forms of prostate cancer and help manage aggressive forms of the disease.

Chemotherapy: Chemotherapy drugs are often used to treat men with advanced prostate cancer.

Cryotherapy: It's a relatively new treatment with a space-age name, but cryotherapy actually consists in freezing -- and hopefully destroying -- cancerous cells.

High Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU): The opposite of cryotherapy, HIFU uses a high-intensity ultrasound beam to heat the cancerous prostate cells until they die.

Prevention is Key
The same mantra you hear about many cancers also applies to prostate cancer: Early detection can play a key role in its control and elimination. That's why it's important not to let your squeamishness get the best of you; relax and get the test over with. Regular prostate exams, along with knowing the steps you can take to prevent this disease, will go a long way in keeping your prostate health on the right track.

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