What happens when prostate spreads to the bones?

The cancer cells spread to the bones by breaking away from the prostate gland and escaping attack from your immune system as they travel to your bones. These cancer cells then grow new tumors in your bones. Cancer can spread to any bone in the body, but the spine is most often affected.

everydayhealth.com - FAQs About Prostate Cancer That Has Spread to the Bones

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The prostate is a gland the size of a golf ball that sits below the bladder and in front of the rectum. It’s responsible for making the fluid that forms semen. Many men develop cancer of the prostate gland; it’s the second most common cancer among men in the United States. There are several stages of prostate cancer — the earliest, when the cancer is still limited to the prostate gland itself, is the easiest to treat. When the cancer has spread, or metastasized, beyond the prostate gland, it’s considered “advanced,” according to the American Cancer Society (ACS). When it spreads, it’s common for cancer cells to reach the bones first. Nine out of 10 men with advanced prostate cancer also have it in their bones. At this advanced stage, the cancer can’t be cured, says Scott T. Tagawa, MD, a medical oncologist at Weill Cornell Medicine and New York-Presbyterian Hospital in New York City. “But with treatment, many men can live a long time. There are men I’ve been treating for advanced prostate cancer for 10 or 20 years.” And today even better treatments are available, Dr. Tagawa says. For a long time, he says, men with advanced prostate cancer lived three to five years on average. But that changed since around 2012, as newer, more effective drugs have been introduced. Tagawa says he often starts men on these recently approved drugs right away, “when they walk in the door with prostate cancer that has spread.” This has led to longer survival and better quality of life for many of the men he treats. Arm yourself with the facts about what happens when prostate cancer spreads to the bones and what you can do to help manage it.

What are bone metastases with prostate cancer?

The ACS describes bone metastases as areas of bone containing cancer cells that have spread from another place in the body. In the case of prostate cancer, the cells have spread beyond the prostate gland. Since the cancer cells originated in the prostate gland, the cancer is referred to as metastatic prostate cancer. The cancer cells spread to the bones by breaking away from the prostate gland and escaping attack from your immune system as they travel to your bones.

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These cancer cells then grow new tumors in your bones. Cancer can spread to any bone in the body, but the spine is most often affected. Other areas cancer cells commonly travel to, according to the ACS, include the pelvis, upper legs and arms, and the ribs.

What are the symptoms of advanced prostate cancer and bone metastases?

When cancer cells spread to the bones, the condition weakens the very frame on which the body rests. The cells interfere with the strength and hardness of the bone’s structure, interrupting its normal cycle of building up and dissolving. There’s no cure for advanced prostate cancer, but there’s a lot that doctors can do to help with the symptoms that might develop. This includes managing pain. “A common misconception is that if there’s cancer in the bone, there must be pain,” Tagawa says. “That’s not true. Cancer can be in the bone without pain.” However, if there is pain, he says, “it can be controlled with anticancer therapies and pain medication, and good quality of life can be maintained.” In addition to pain, some men with bone metastases develop a condition called hypercalcemia, in which, because of the damage to bones from the cancer cells, too much calcium builds up in the blood. Hypercalcemia can make you feel constipated, thirsty, sleepy, or sluggish, and it can increase the urge to urinate, according to the ACS. Over time, hypercalcemia can cause muscle and joint achiness, as well as weakness in the muscles. In advanced stages, it can cause the kidneys to shut down. There are treatments for hypercalcemia as well as for other complications from advanced prostate cancer, such as bones that become weak and break or fracture, and for growths in the spine that can press on the spinal cord and damage nerves. But no matter what symptoms you might develop, palliative care can help. This type of supportive care aims to ease any discomfort you’re experiencing and improve your overall quality of life with prostate cancer.

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Can I survive advanced prostate cancer? What’s the prognosis?

Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of death from cancer in men, according to the National Cancer Institute. While there’s no cure, men can live with it for years if they get the right treatment. Each man with advanced prostate cancer is different, of course. You and your cancer have unique qualities that your doctor takes into consideration when planning the best treatment strategy for you. According to Harvard Medical School, the prognosis for men with advanced prostate cancer is improving because of newer medications that help them get past a resistance to androgen-deprivation therapy (ADT) that typically develops after a few years of treatment. With these medications, many men are living longer, and a number of men diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer are dying with the cancer, not from it. Promptly treating prostate cancer bone metastases with the newest medication can help change a man’s prognosis dramatically, Tagawa says. “There are men who do well for decades,” he says. “Some men can even stop treatment, go on to live many years, and actually die of something unrelated.” Tagawa says that cancer specialists who use sophisticated imaging technologies, like positron-emission tomography (PET) scans, have gotten very good at finding even tiny bone metastases, which is valuable in diagnosing and removing early stage metastases.

everydayhealth.com - FAQs About Prostate Cancer That Has Spread to the Bones