Early symptoms of prostate cancer in the elderly

  In recent years, prostate cancer has become one of the diseases that endanger society and human health, and it brings great pain and distress to male friends. In the early stage, prostate cancer is asymptomatic, but when the tumor invades or obstructs the urethra or bladder neck, symptoms like lower urinary tract obstruction or irritation will occur, and in severe cases, acute urinary retention, hematuria and urinary incontinence may occur. Bone metastasis can cause bone pain, pathological fracture, anemia, and spinal cord compression leading to lower limb paraplegia. In order to reduce the incidence of prostate cancer, we should have a certain understanding of the early symptoms of prostate cancer.  The early symptoms of prostate cancer are as follows: 1. Pain: pain in the lower back, sacrum, buttocks, hip, pelvic and sciatic nerve pain are common and severe. It may be due to cancer metastasis to bones or invasion of nerves or hydronephrosis or kidney infection. Pain occurs in about 31% of patients. If the tumor of the prostate gland locally enlarges progressively and compresses the urethra of its encircling prostate part, urination disorders may occur, which may manifest as progressive difficulty in urination (thinning of urine stream, skewed urine stream, bifurcation of urine stream or prolonged urination), frequent urination, urgent urination, painful urination, feeling of incomplete urination, etc. In severe cases, urine dribbling and urinary retention may occur. These symptoms are similar to those of benign prostatic hyperplasia and are easily misdiagnosed and missed, delaying early diagnosis and early treatment of the disease.  2.Disorders of urination: 80% of patients have progressive difficulty in urination, thin urine stream or distorted urine stream, or bifurcation of urine stream, prolonged urination, frequent urination, urgent urination, painful urination, incomplete urination, etc. In severe cases, urine dripping and urinary retention occur. Hematuria only accounts for 3% of patients; 3. Systemic symptoms: Metastasis is very common among prostate cancer patients. About 1/3 or even 2/3 of patients have lymph node metastasis at the time of first visit to the doctor, mostly in the intra-skeletal, extra-skeletal, lumbar and inguinal areas. They can cause lymph node enlargement and swelling of the lower limbs in the corresponding areas. Hematogenous metastases are mostly found in bones (such as pelvis, sacrum, lumbar spine, upper femur, etc.) and internal organs (such as lung, liver, brain, adrenal gland, testis, etc.).  When the tumor enlarges to a certain extent and presses on the urethra causing difficulty in urination, it is often confused with the difficulty in urination caused by prostate enlargement. This makes patients delay going to the hospital, thus delaying the good time for early detection and treatment, so that most patients first find distant metastatic lesions, and only after further examination is prostate cancer discovered. Some patients present with metastatic symptoms, such as low back pain and sciatica. Therefore, prostate cancer should be excluded in men with metastatic cancer of unknown primary focus. The clinical manifestation of prostate cancer varies greatly and is related to the tumor staging. The latent type and occult type have no local symptoms. The clinical type is similar to prostate hyperplasia in terms of local symptoms.