Reaching the Holguin health services with an advanced stage of prostate cancer is one of the factors that influence the increase of the disease in the territory and the mortality rate of the disease, facts that located this location at the end of the year 2022 as the first cause of death of the oncological branch in the male sex.
In pathologies of this nature, an early diagnosis is important, in order to have more possibilities of controlling the disease. The fact that early diagnosis does not occur in Primary Health Care (PHC) goes against this purpose, despite being a detectable pathology with a physical examination, through digital rectal examination and when there is adequate availability in the health areas of the determination of specific prostate antigen, popularly known as PSA. The latter is a study carried out in the blood to determine levels that guide the specialist if the disease is present or not.
At the Holguín Territorial Cancer Center, located in the Vladimir Ilich Lenin University General Hospital, various treatments are provided to patients with prostate cancer, depending on the stage. Among them and the most effective is surgical, but it can only be done in the initial stages, hence the importance of early diagnosis.
Another treatment option is hormone therapy and radiation therapy. Chemo is left for those who are in a more advanced stage or for those who resist hormonal treatments. The prognosis of life for patients with this type of cancer depends on the clinical stage of the pathology. In the early stages it can exceed up to 90 percent, but in stages three and four survival drops to less than 10 percent.
Although any man over the age of 50 can have it and not feel symptoms, there are warning signs such as urination problems, bloody urine, muscle or skeletal pain that indicate the need to consult a doctor. However, the consulted bibliography states that there may be a group of patients who do not present symptoms, but they themselves should be interested in requesting a systematic screening for having risk factors such as genetic inheritance, that is, having family members who are carriers of the disease. disease, presenting PSA elevations without symptoms or being over 50 years of age.
It has not yet been possible for the male population to internalize the importance of performing a digital rectal examination, an examination that achieves significant fidelity for diagnosis. Digital rectal examination is not only indicated for the prostate but for other diagnoses that are useful for the detection of early stages of other diseases. It is necessary to insist on systematic work in PHC in order to strengthen this principle that greatly influences patient survival.
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