Dr. Patrick Walsh's Guide to Surviving Prostate Cancer Book Summary - Dr. Patrick Walsh's Guide to Surviving Prostate Cancer Book explained in key points

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Dr. Patrick Walsh's Guide to Surviving Prostate Cancer summary

Name: Dr. Patrick Walsh's Guide to Surviving Prostate Cancer
Rating: 4.6 (109 reviews)
Author: Patrick C. Walsh

Patrick C. Walsh

From Diagnosis & Treatment to Managing Advanced Stages of Cancer

4.6 (109 ratings)

18 mins

Table of Contents

Dr. Patrick Walsh's Guide to Surviving Prostate Cancer
summarized in 8 key ideas

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Key idea 1 of 8

What’s in it for me? Take the mystery out of prostate cancer, and face the future with confidence.

Meet the prostate. About the size of a walnut, this unassuming gland sits at the crucial junction of a man’s urinary and reproductive tracts. Functionally, it doesn’t do much – it provides about one-third of seminal fluid, but that doesn’t make it necessary for reproduction. What it can do, however, is cause a world of trouble.

If you’re a man living in America, there is a one in eight chance that at some point in your life, this complicated little gland will develop cancer. While this doesn’t necessarily mean a death sentence – screening and treatment are better than they have ever been – nearly 27,000 Americans will die from prostate cancer this year.

There are a handful of reasons you might find yourself listening to a Blink about prostate cancer. Perhaps you would simply like to expand your medical knowledge. Or maybe you are a man looking for ways to reduce the chances of getting this disease. Or maybe you or a loved one has been diagnosed with prostate cancer, and you would like to have a better understanding of what to expect going forward.

Whatever your reasons, these Blinks will serve as a crash course in the causes of prostate cancer, the treatments available, and what the future holds. While no substitute for professional medical advice, the following Blinks will hopefully take the fear and mystery out of this potentially devastating disease.

A healthy lifestyle can reduce your risk of developing prostate cancer.

In these days of sensationalism and self-diagnosis, it’s easy to get overwhelmed or unnecessarily scared when hearing about a particular disease or cancer. So let’s start by addressing a simple question: How worried should you be?

Simply put, if you’re from America, or any other Western country, prostate cancer is something to worry about. A boy born in America today has a 12.5% chance of getting it and a 2.6% chance of dying from it. That makes it worth paying attention to.

However, there is a range of factors that can increase your chances of developing prostate cancer – some you can change and some you can’t.

The first and biggest risk factor is age. Prostate cancer takes a long time to develop, so it often doesn’t appear until later in life. In fact, a man over the age of 70 is nearly seven times more likely to develop it than a man aged 50-59.

Another factor is African ancestry. If you are of African descent, you have the highest chance of getting and dying from prostate cancer in the world.

Also out of your control is the fact that prostate cancer runs in the family. This doesn’t always mean it’s hereditary – it’s often the result of a shared lifestyle.

So, what are those lifestyle factors? There are two main things you can control to reduce your chances of getting prostate cancer.

Studies have shown that having too much body fat around your middle not only increases your likelihood of getting it but also reduces the chances of recovery if you do get it.

The second factor is – unsurprisingly – smoking. While this doesn’t directly cause prostate cancer, it does increase the chances of dying from it and reduce the success of treatment.

So in the end, you probably already know how to reduce your risk: Stop smoking, if you haven’t already, and eat smarter. A diet set around a wide variety of vegetables, fruits, grains, low-fat dairy, and proteins is advised.

Early screening is the best thing you can do to increase your chances of survival.

Thinking about prostate cancer isn’t fun. Nobody wants the hassle of going to the doctor and having an uncomfortable rectal exam. But the consequences of not finding it early can be much worse.

The thing about prostate cancer is that, in its early stages, it is silent. No symptoms, no warning signs, nothing. Until it grows outside of the prostate, in which case it is rarely curable.

If it is low-risk, consider active surveillance.

You may be asking yourself: “What’s the best treatment for prostate cancer?” Unfortunately, there is no answer to this question. A better question is: “What is the best treatment for me?”

You see, everybody’s experience is different. It’s not just the severity and grade of the tumor that can influence treatment decisions – there are also things like age and general health to consider.

Radical prostatectomy is the gold standard in prostate cancer treatment.

Picture, if you will, the many-headed hydra from Greek mythology. You battle this fearsome beast, cutting off its heads, only to have more grow back in their place. This is not too different from prostate cancer – on average, three to seven tumors will be growing in the prostate at once. So, instead of chopping off the heads, why not target the whole thing?

Radical prostatectomy is the most effective cure if the cancer is confined to the prostate. It’s considered the gold standard in treatment, and if done by an experienced surgeon, negative side effects like impotence and incontinence can be rare.

Radiation and cryo or thermal ablation are less-invasive alternatives to surgery.

For some men, surgery can be much too invasive, and the associated risks and recovery time are not worth the trouble. Luckily, several less-invasive treatments are considered nearly as effective.

One such option is radiation therapy. This basically involves shooting radiation at the prostate, causing the targeted cells to die. The right amount of radiation must be used so the cancer is killed, but not the surrounding healthy tissue. Luckily the method has been finetuned over the years, and it is now extremely accurate and precise. The patient wears a custom-made body suit so they remain completely still, and the same position can be reproduced for each dose of radiation.

Hormone therapy is useful in extreme cases, but shouldn’t be the primary treatment.

There is one remaining avenue to explore when looking at treatment options: Hormone therapy.

The treatments you’ve seen up until now are most effective for treating lower-grade, localized prostate cancer, which is still contained to the prostate. Because hormone therapy does not actually cure the cancer, it should not be used as the primary treatment in these situations. However, hormone therapy becomes essential when the disease is metastatic, meaning it has spread to other parts of the body.

Don’t be frightened of the future.

You’ve consulted your doctor, chosen the right treatment for your unique situation, and undergone whatever procedure was deemed best. You may be asking yourself: Will my cancer be cured forever?

For prostate cancer to be cured, two things must be true. Firstly, the cancer needs to be diagnosed at a stage where it is curable – meaning it hasn’t established itself outside of the prostate. Secondly, the treatment has to work. If these conditions are met, a complete cure is possible.

Final Summary

The story of prostate cancer is constantly changing and being retold. Only a few decades ago your options would have been limited and extremely brutal. Now we know enough to be able to confidently monitor a confirmed cancer using active surveillance if it isn’t an immediate threat.

And more aggressive treatments such as radical prostatectomy and radiation therapy are tested and reliable enough to let us face the disease head-on. Even the less preferable option of hormone therapy offers promising results in the later stages of cancer.

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What is Dr. Patrick Walsh's Guide to Surviving Prostate Cancer about?

Dr. Patrick Walsh's Guide to Surviving Prostate Cancer (2001) is a comprehensive and straightforward guide to one of the most common cancers facing men today. Drawing on decades of scientific research and medical expertise, the authors outline every aspect of prostate cancer, including potential causes, testing and diagnosis, current treatment options, and what to expect as a survivor.

Who should read Dr. Patrick Walsh's Guide to Surviving Prostate Cancer?

Men or the loved ones of men who have been diagnosed with prostate cancer and want to know what to expect.
Healthy men who would like to stay that way.
The medically minded who would like an overview of one of the most common forms of cancer.

About the Author

Patrick C. Walsh is a urologist, researcher, and writer, best-known for his work in the development of the “anatomic approach to radical prostatectomy,” a technique which has greatly improved outcomes of those undergoing surgery for prostate cancer. Together with Janet Farrar Worthington he has also written the bestselling book The Prostate: A Guide for Men and the Women Who Love Them.

Janet Farrer Worthington is an award-winning science writer, and the editor of Discovery, a research publication concerned with prostate cancer research. She has written many health publications and often writes about prostate cancer for her men’s health blog, vitaljake.com.

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