Advantages
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When a physician feels a tumor or lump during a prostate exam, the first thing they want to do is biopsy it.
Unfortunately, these days we talk about having prostate biopsies as if we were talking about taking cough drops. They are so common that most men just accept them as normal totally safe procedures.
Well a prostate biopsy is not a safe or healthy procedure! A prostate biopsy could be the actual cause of a man's death. True.
Prostate cancer generally is very slow growing. It is also contained within the prostate gland by a tough tissue covering. In fact most physicians will recommend no treatment at all to patients over 70 because they expect the patient to die of other natural causes before the prostate cancer can do any real damage.
However, when a needle biopsy is performed the covering of the prostate is broken. If there is cancer in there, it now can come out on the needle or through the opening now created in the prostate.
Those cancer cells are set free into the body's circulation to migrate to other parts of the body like the bones and other organs. There they can easily develop into further cancers in the already immune compromised body.
The main advantage of Ultrasound Imaging over prostate biopsy is safety.
The supposed advantage of prostate biopsy is that cancer cells can be definitely recognized. But, you could be opening a Pandora's Box!
Let's look at what the facts say:
Most prostate cancer, as you know, is slow growing. But, if you needle biopsy it, it can spread and grow rampant in other body parts, including the bones and other organs.
The advantage of Prostate Ultrasound Imaging, is that no tissue is cut or broken.
The tumor(s) can easily be seen on a n Ultrasound Image. A physician can not make a cancer diagnosis from the Prostate Ultrasound Image pictures as immediately as from a biopsy. However, by regularly monitoring the tumor(s) with repeated Ultrasound Image exams, the physician can tell whether the tumor(s) are growing or not. If they are not growing, is it causing any real problem?
If, over time, they are not growing, they may be no problem at all and may not be malignant. If they are growing, you may want to consider your healing alternatives.
In either case, do you really want to subject yourself to possibly spreading the cancers cells all through your body? It is something to consider.
Also, even if there is no prostate cancer, the needle biopsy can cause serious infection in the prostate gland.
With Prostate Ultrasound Imaging, no tissue is normally compromised or broken. All that happens is a small microphone shaped instrument is inserted into the rectum and high-frequency sound waves are emitted. Their "echoes" are recorded and translated via a computer into pictures. It is the same procedure used vaginally in a woman to monitor a developing fetus.
It's always your choice. The safety advantages of Prostate Ultrasound Imaging just seem to be overwhelming!
Be Well.....
~ William
