Male cancer problems are a significant part of urology most usually (except testicular cancer) affecting older patients.
Prostate Cancer
Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men and many men have PSA testing done via their GP if it is suspected. If a result is abnormal or the GP has examined the prostate and thought it may be abnormal men may be referred for assessment. Much like in other cancers a triple assessment is often undertaken to assess the need and type of any biopsy of sample of the prostate. This often includes taking into account, examination, PSA blood tests and for some men multi-parametric MRI scanning is used. In some instances a PCA3 test can be useful.
Testicular cancer
Testicular cancer is now highly curable due to treatments that combine surgery and for men with more severe disease on some occasions chemotherapy. Men who are suspected of having this condition usually see a urologist for blood tests and an ultrasound assessment is usually performed. If these suggest testicular cancer the tumour can usually be removed, often as single day surgery for early problems.
Kidney Cancer
Renal (Kidney) cancer is an increasingly common problem. It affects both men and women but is more common in men. Often early kidney cancer has no symptoms and is discovered by chance on scans done for other reasons. Kidney cancer can also cause blood loss in the urine or a lump in the abdomen.
Bladder Cancer
Bladder cancer is one of the most common cancer causes for blood in the urine. Tests including examination of the bladder under local-anaesthetic with a telescope may be needed to make a diagnosis. It may be treated by day / overnight surgery via the urethra (water pipe) with no external cuts to take samples. This is often curative but more complex surgery or chemo/radiotherapy might be needed in more severe cases.