What kind of symptoms can I have?

The biggest risk of prostate cancer is that in its early stages, the patient shows no symptoms. Often the tumour is only detected due to metastases forming in other areas. Prevention therefore plays a key role in the treatment of prostate cancer.

In the later stages of the disease, a prostate cancer patient may experience a range of symptoms, many of which may indicate other diseases. These symptoms include the need to urinate frequently (especially at night), difficulty urinating, blood in the urine or semen, erectile dysfunction, painful ejaculation, and frequent pain or stiffness in the lower back, hips or upper thighs.

If you experience any of these problems, it may not necessarily be prostate cancer, but you should see your GP or urologist:

• Difficulty urinating.
• Difficulty starting to urinate, inability to stop urinating.
• Frequent urination, especially at night.
• Weak and intermittent stream of urine.
• Pain, burning sensation when urinating.
• Blood in urine or semen.
• Problems with erection.
• Pain in pelvis, back.

The simplest and clinically most reliable indicator of prostate cancer is prostate specific antigen (PSA) in the blood. An increased PSA concentration in the blood suggests that the permeability of the prostate walls has increased as a result of pathological changes, like a tumour, which can usually be detected at an early stage thanks to blood tests.

Prostate tumours most often metastasize via lymph nodes into bones, lungs, liver, nervous system and kidneys. If prevention is neglected, prostate cancer is often detected only when metastases have already formed which causes pain or stiffness in the back, hips, limbs. The cancer is also accompanied by general weakness, lack of appetite and weight loss.