Cancer

Like other cancers, the individual who has it can detect the presence of testicular cancer by doing a self-examination in which they are looking for lumps. A doctor may also detect a lump while doing a routine examination. If a lump is located during self-examination or by a doctor doing an examination the next step is to determine if the lump is cancerous or not.

Self-Examination:

The male should examine his testicles during or after his bath or shower, because that is when the skin of the scrotum is relaxed.

Step by step what to do:

• Hold the penis out of the way and then examine each testicle separately.

• Hold the testicle between your thumbs and fingers with both hands and roll it gently between your fingers.

• Look and also feel for any hard lumps or nodules which are smooth rounded masses or any change in the size, shape, or the consistency of your testes.

Males who are aware of testicular cancer may be concerned about what to look out for when doing self-examinations. They often wonder what exactly are the symptoms of testicular cancer? Here are some simple facts that may help to determine what are the symptoms and when to be concerned.

It is important to understand that just having symptoms described in this article is not to say that you do for sure have testicular cancer. Having symptoms only means that you should have a doctor examine you to make a diagnosis. The symptoms that are typical of testicular cancer can also be symptoms for other conditions.

Cancer that forms in a man's testicles is called: testicular cancer. Usually this type of cancer affects males who are between the ages of 20 and 40. Males who have had abnormal testicle development, have had an undescended testicle, or have those who have a family history of testicular cancer are those who are more prone to developing this cancer.

White males of Scandinavian descent are more prone to having this type of cancer. The testicular cancer rate for white males has doubled in the past 40 years and has recently increased for black men too. There is no known cause for the difference in rate of occurrence between whites and blacks.

Symptoms

The symptoms of testicular cancer include pain in the scrotum or testicle, or ache in the lower abdomen, back or groin, lumps in the testicles or in the groin area, and also swelling the same area. The earlier you discover and treat this cancer the better for prognosis.

According to studies conducted by the American Cancer Society, other than skin cancer, prostate cancer is the most common type of cancer in America. The organization estimates that during 2008 about 186,320 new cases of prostate cancer will be diagnosed in the United States. Although 1 in every six men in the United States will get prostate cancer in his lifetime, only 1 in 35 will die of this illness. Still this is a staggering statistic. Currently, prostate cancer is number among the killer cancers in the US for males, after lung cancer.

Prostate cancer behaves differently in different people. Although prostate cancer is generally slow growing, there are cases where it can growth fast and spread rapidly. In the same manner, there are people who responds well with treatment but there are also other who respond very slowly and would require more aggressive treatments.

According to a study^[1] by researchers at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Hudson, men who are overweight or obese do not respond well to radiation treatment and may need more aggressive treatment for prostate cancer.