, urinating often (especially at night), difficulty urinating, pain or burning from urinating, blood in the urine, and nagging pain in the back, hips, or pelvis. Often, there are no early symptoms of prostate cancer. Once cancer of the prostate has been found, tests are done to find out if cancer cells have spread from the prostate to tissues around it, or to other parts of the body. This is called "staging." It is very important to know the stage if the disease to plan for the treatment. The following stages are used for prostate cancer:
             ü Stage I: Prostate cancer at this stage cannot be felt and causes no symptoms. The cancer is only in the prostate and usually is found accidentally when surgery is done for other reasons, such as BPH. Cancer cells may be found in one, or many areas of the prostate.
             ü Stage II: The tumor may be shown by a blood test or felt in the areas of the prostate during rectal exam, but the cancer cells are only in the prostate gland.
             ü Stage III: Cancer cells have spread outside the covering (capsule) of the prostate to tissues surrounding it. The seminal vesicles may also have cancer in them.
             ü Stage IV: Cancer cells have spread to lymph nodes near or far from the prostate, or to other organs and tissues, such as the liver or lungs.
             Prostate staging can also be described using T (tumor size), N (extent of spread to lymph nodes), and M (extent of spread to other parts of the body). Three kinds of treatments for prostate cancer that are commonly used are Surgery (taking out the cancer), radiation therapy (using high dose x-rays or other high energy rays to kill cancer cells), and hormone therapy (using hormones to stop cancer cells from growing). There is also hormone therapy and brachytherapy.
             Surgery is the most common of the three treatments. The cancer may be removed by radical prostatectomy, transurethral resection, or cryosurgery (removing the cancer by freezin...