Irving, Texas – Testing for prostate cancer has improved, with the prostate-specific antigen enabling prostate cancer diagnosis at an early and curable stage. Prostate Specific Antigen (PSA) is a tumor marker – an enzyme, glycoprotein that coagulates when semen is ejaculated and breaks down the coagulant.

“Over the past decade, deaths from cancer of the prostate have fallen by 33%, which is more than any other cancer in men or women,” says Dr. Echt.“It is because very few men who were diagnosed thirty years ago were diagnosed at later stages of the disease, and those that were curable did not have thetechnology for treatment that we have today. Once PSA testing was introduced, we have been able to diagnose men at earlier stages offering the ability to cure the disease.”

How is prostate cancer diagnosis carried out?

• A biopsy confirms the diagnosis of prostate cancer. A biopsy is removing tissue samples surgically in a doctor's office while under local anesthesia, drugs or substances that cause loss of feeling. The urologist performs the biopsy after receiving confirmation of prostate cancer from the pathologist.

• A Gleason score will show doctors how aggressive the prostate cancer is likely to be and guides them on how to conduct the treatment. A high Gleason score indicates how thetumor found is expected to increase and spread.

"With the prevalence of prostate cancer in men, early diagnosis is the only way to fight it," says Dr. Echt. “Advancements in prostate cancer diagnosis and treatments are continuously evolving, with more research, development, detection, and treatments with the hope that awareness will be mounted against prostate cancer."

About The Prostate Seed Institute

The Prostate Seed Institute is one of the country’s leading pioneers in prostate cancer treatment including prostate seed implementation, a fast and painless procedure that effectively treats prostate cancer in its earliest stages. With a team of oncology experts and a state-of-the-art facility, the Prostate Seed Institute provides prostate cancer patients with the most comprehensive treatment available.