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Men's cancers · free patient guide
Prostate cancer
Cancer of the prostate gland
Genitourinary oncology · Coming soon
What it is
Prostate cancer covers a very wide range, from disease that would never have caused a symptom in a man's lifetime, to disease that needs immediate treatment. The Gleason grade and the stage separate them.
This is the cancer where 'do nothing yet, but watch carefully' is most often the correct answer. It is also the answer least likely to be offered by an institution that earns from prostate surgery. We perform none.
Prostate cancer is rising in India as more men are tested. That brings a genuine dilemma: some prostate cancers never need treating, and treating them causes harm without benefit. Deciding which is which is the whole clinical problem.
Warning signs worth acting on
- Difficulty passing urine, a weak stream, or getting up repeatedly at night
- Blood in the urine or semen
- A rising PSA, or a PSA above the expected range for your age
- New persistent bone pain, particularly in the back, hips or pelvis
- A family history of prostate, breast or ovarian cancer
How it is diagnosed
- PSA blood test, interpreted with your age and prostate size rather than alone
- Clinical examination
- MRI of the prostate before biopsy, where available
- Targeted biopsy guided by the MRI
- Gleason grading, which drives the treatment decision more than PSA does
Germline testing is offered where family history or disease features suggest it, because inherited variants change both treatment options and relatives' screening. Tumour profiling is used in advanced disease.
Is it inherited?
Inherited variants, including those associated with breast and ovarian cancer, are found in a meaningful minority. A family history on either side of the family matters.
Genetic counselling & family risk →
Prevention & early detection
PSA testing is a decision, not a routine. It finds disease that needs treating and disease that does not, and it is worth understanding both before you have the test.
Treatment options
What may form part of a plan
Which of these apply to you depends on your stage, your pathology, your other health and what you want from treatment. That decision belongs at a tumour board, not on a website.
Surgery
Operability assessment and planning here; the operation at the appropriate partner centre.
Conservative management & active surveillance
Sometimes the right decision is to watch carefully and treat nothing yet.
Radiotherapy
Targeted radiation to a defined area, planned in millimetres.
Hormone therapy
Treatment that removes or blocks the hormones some cancers depend on.
Chemotherapy
Drug treatment that acts on rapidly dividing cells throughout the body.
Targeted therapy
Medicines matched to a specific alteration found in your tumour.
Clinical trials
Most Indian patients never learn a trial exists, because nobody is looking.
At KPCIRC
The pathway for this disease
- Active-surveillance protocols for low-risk disease, with written triggers for intervening
- Structured recall, so surveillance does not quietly become forgetting
- Hereditary prostate risk triage into counselling
- Bone health and cardiovascular monitoring on hormone therapy
- Sexual health and continence support, which men are rarely offered and rarely ask for
Support that matters most here
Take this with you
Questions to ask your own doctor
These work wherever you are treated. Print the page or take a photograph of this list.
- What is my Gleason grade and my risk group?
- Is active surveillance an option for me, and what would we monitor?
- What are the effects of each option on continence and on sex?
- Does my family history mean anything for my brothers or my children?
This page is not an emergency service. Severe breathlessness, chest pain, uncontrolled bleeding, a high fever during chemotherapy, or a sudden change in alertness means going to your nearest emergency department now, not reading further.