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By Dr Pius Musau
The prostate is a gland in the male reproductive system that contributes to the composition of semen.
It is found below the urinary bladder outlet and forms part of the passage through which urine leaves the body. Among the problems this gland can have is enlargement after 50 years of age with a possibility of turning cancerous in one out of six men.
People naturally get unsettled every time a cancer is mentioned, probably due to the learnt inevitability of death that comes with it. A foreboding resignation to an uncertain future of certain death makes us all vulnerable to the realisation that life is limited. In the midst of all this, it would be uplifting for men to know that prostate cancer, with a prognosis stretching seven to ten years, is the best cancer you can ever get.
The science of cancers
The human body has a regulatory mechanism that ensures that cells don’t keep multiplying once they have attained their organic roles. Cancers are by their very nature conditions in which this mechanism is lost and so there is an unregulated proliferation of cells leading to abnormal growths. This will then spread to adjacent structures and through lymph and blood. Death from cancer is as a result of this spread and its effect on the essential functions of the organs like blood supply, nutrition and cellular oxygenation. Their rate of multiplication will determine the rate of spread and the period of survival from diagnosis to demise.
The writer is a consultant urologist and Lecturer at the Department of Surgery, Moi University, and School of Medicine.
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