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| Lower Back pain and prostate cancer |
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Question:
My sisters boyfriend was being treated for kidney
infection when they couldn't find the source of his lower back pain. (he had never had back pain before)
There was no kidney infection. The PSA test led to a biopsy and then the RP in June /03
(bone scan clear). I can't understand how lower back pain can be a symptom if the cancer is
still localized in the prostate. Can someone tell me why?
Answer:
I don't know the details of these cases, but as you probably know, lower
back pain can arise as a symptom of advanced metastatic prostate cancer
which has spread to the spine. It should show up on a bone scan.
Lower back pain is extremely common; 80 percent of adults will
experience it at some time in life. Prostate cancer as a cause of back
pain is not the first thing that would come to mind. Perhaps in the
cases discussed, while trying to diagnose the back pain, the physician
also ordered a PSA test on the off chance that the patient had advanced
prostate cancer. But of course if the PSA test revealed high levels,
and a followup biopsy revealed prostate cancer, it would be extremely
likely to be early treatable prostate cancer. So the prostate cancer
was discovered and treated as an incidental side effect of the
diagnostic procedures, not because the doctors really expected to find
advanced prostate cancer in the spine.
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