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Symptoms that may indicate prostate cancer: |
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Rising PSA level
Bone pain or back pain
Difficulty urinating
Weakness or numbness in the legs
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Causes
The cause of prostate cancer is not known. Age, genetics and environmental factors all contribute to some degree. Increased age is a risk and the disease is rare in men under 40. Heredity plays an important role. Men whose fathers or brothers have prostate cancer and African-American men have greater risk for prostate cancer. A diet high in fat somehow increases the risk, based on the low incidence of prostate cancer in Asian countries where there is much less fat consumed compared with the Western diet.
In the Encyclopedia: Prostate-specific antigen test
Prostate ultrasound
Prostatectomy
This article was reviewed and updated June 2007.
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