Prostate is a male reproductive gland that functions to produce the fluid for the semen and that functions to transport the sperm during the male orgasm. If we study the structure of the prostate gland, it is being made of about 30% muscular tissue and the rest of it is glandular tissue. The prostate gland is present at the neck of the bladder and then it opens into the urethra to pass on the prostatic secretions along with the semen to add bulk to it. It is being reported that by the age of 70, almost all men have a little enlargement of the prostate. If that enlargement is not significant enough, then there are no symptoms that are evident, but if the enlargement becomes significant then it presents itself in the obstruction of the urethra, which in turn leads to the obstruction of the urine, which is a serious condition and that is something that is an acute condition and needs to be resolved immediately because the urine gets collected more and more in the urinary bladder and then the urinary bladder becomes distended and the urine needs to be taken out of the bladder or the bladder could get ruptured and the bladder distension itself is a pretty painful condition.

This prostate enlargement should not be considered as a cancer of the prostate because there is another condition of the prostate that exists known as the benign prostatic hyperplasia also known as the BPH or it could be prostatitis. Benign prostatic hyperplasia is not cancer but is a benign condition, however, the benign prostatic hyperplasia as well as the prostate cancer are the conditions that can coexist together. Benign prostatic hypertrophy beings in men over the age of 50 and the symptoms that are caused because of it includes a weak urinary stream, difficulty to initiate the urinary stream, frequent urination, frequent awakening at night to urinate, incomplete bladder emptying sensation or complete inability to urinate.

Until and unless the symptoms start to occur because of the benign prostatic hyperplasia, the doctors do not think that the treatment is necessary for the benign prostatic hyperplasia, but if the symptoms are occurring then the treatment is required. This condition can be treated with the medications, as well as nonsurgical procedures that are done to remove the excess tissue such as the heat procedure.
There have been researches that are done and it has been found that the men who are obese are at an increased risk of recurrence of the cancer even if they have undergone the radiotherapy and the chemotherapy for the prostate cancer. The researchers said that there are a lot of mechanisms in which the obesity can promote the development and the progression of the cancer. They added that this combination or link of obesity with different cancers is being established by studying the different populations, experimentations and doing clinical researches on humans.

The studies have been carried out in which they have mentioned that the prostate cancers are present in the countries and the socioeconomic groups where the diet is rich in sugar, fat, red meat and is pretty less in the fiber, fruits, as well as the vegetables. Since it has been found out that the cancer is linked to obesity, there have also been studies that have proved along with time that the individuals who have been going through cancer and have been able to fight well against the cancer and are able to have been cured from that are at an increased risk of developing the cancer again if they are following a trend of gaining weight and are getting obese at a very high rate. Controlling the weight not only improves the chances of not having a recurrent cancer, but it also improves the quality of life of the individuals who are suffering from diabetes or other cardiovascular diseases.

There are many cancers that are known to occur because of the excess of fatty tissue inside the body. There are a lot of hormones that are involved in obesity and they play a role in the initiation and the promotion of the cancer at almost all levels. There are about four mechanisms that are being known in which the increased hormone secretion can cause promotion of cancer development. In the first mechanism, obesity leads to the production of the growth promoting steroid hormones and these can bind to the nuclear receptors in the hormone dependent tumor cells. The second mechanism is that the free hormone levels are affected by hormone-hormone interactions as in the case where the upper body obesity is associated with the reduced sex hormone binding globulin levels that leads to the increased free levels of circulating estrogen and testosterone. The third mechanism is that the steroid hormone action can trigger increased oxidant stress promoting cell proliferation and DNA damage. It has been known that the androgens have shown to increase the oxidant stress in the cancer cells of the prostate and that the defensive process to combat the oxidant effects that are shown to be impaired during the early phase of the cancer.

Therefore it is being shown that the paracrine factors and the hormones that stimulate the production of the steroid hormones in the cancer tissue is increased in obesity. It is also being noted that a lot of the paracrine factors that are the cytokines are being produced by the fat cells and the white blood cells. The increased levels of the cytokines are linked with obesity and these levels go down with weight loss. At earlier times, there were a lot of people who lost their lives to the infections, but these days the trend has changed and a lot of people are losing their lives to the diseases such as cancer and heart diseases.

The fact on which it is determined that the individual is overweight or underweight is the body mass index also known as the BMI, which is a ratio of height to weight. It was also found that the individuals who were obese were likely the ones who were diagnosed with prostate cancer at a younger age and these were mostly African Americans.

With this research, the scientists are hoping that they will be able to devise strategies with which they will be educating the masses between the link of obesity and the prostate cancer and what are the different possible ways with which they can take control of their increasing weight so that there is a lesser chance for them to develop the prostate cancer.

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