If you’re a man and you see blood in your urine or experience other unusual urinary symptoms, schedule an immediate screening for prostate cancer. If you have prostate cancer, W. Cooper Buschemeyer III, MD, and his highly trained team can diagnose and treat it to prevent serious complications. Call the office in Conroe or The Woodlands, Texas, or use the online booking feature to schedule an appointment today.
Prostate cancer is cancer in the prostate gland. The prostate is a small, walnut-shaped gland in men that produces semen. Prostate cancer is among the most common kinds and can cause severe problems when left untreated. Discovering the cancer early and being treated right away is the best way to deal with it.
In its early stages, prostate cancer usually doesn’t show any symptoms. But as the disease gets worse, you can experience:
When left untreated, prostate cancer often spreads to other parts of your body and becomes life-threatening.
Risk factors for developing prostate cancer include:
Ways to lower your chance of developing prostate cancer include eating nutritious foods, getting regular exercise, and maintaining a healthy weight.
To determine if you have prostate cancer or how severe it is, Dr. Buschemeyer discusses your symptoms and medical history. He completes a physical exam, including a digital rectal exam.
He may order blood tests, an ultrasound, a bone scan, CT scan, MRI, or other imaging procedures. He’ll likely do a prostate biopsy, taking a small tissue sample for lab analysis.
The treatment that Dr. Buschemeyer suggests will depend on how severe your condition is. Treatments include:
Sometimes Dr. Buschemeyer simply watches prostate cancer in its beginning stages and waits to see if the disease gets worse. The most common prostate cancers are slow-growing and often pose no immediate threat to your health.
Hormone therapy blocks testosterone production to destroy cancer cells.
Cryoablation, the freezing of prostate tissue, can kill cancer cells and surrounding tissues.
Ultrasound energy heats prostate tissue to destroy cancer.
Taking targeted drugs can kill prostate cancer cells.
Immunotherapy uses your body’s immune system to fight prostate cancer.
Chemotherapy uses medications to kill rapidly growing prostate cancer cells. Dr. Buschemeyer and his team administer chemotherapy either through a vein in your arm or in pill form.
Radiation therapy uses focused, high-powered energy to destroy cancer cells.
During surgery, Dr. Buschemeyer removes your prostate gland and surrounding tissues, plus lymph nodes in some cases, to prevent the prostate cancer from spreading.
If you’re at risk of developing prostate cancer or experience symptoms of the disease, call the offices of W. Cooper Buschemeyer III, MD, or book an appointment online today.