The brothers said their father was diagnosed with an enlarged prostate in his later life
Two brothers were diagnosed with prostate cancer within weeks of each other months after a harmless joke on a holiday prompted them to take a test. For sixty-eight-year-old Keith Powell and his younger brother Alan, prostate cancer detection came out of the blue and they had to get a radical prostatectomy done for treatment.
While both Keith and Alan feel they are lucky to have caught the cancer well in time before it spread, prostate cancer, which occurs in the reproductive system in men, occurs very slowly, many times without symptoms.
Alan said he decided to get tested after a chance remark about the number of times "men of a certain age" go to the toilet during a vacation made him think. When Keith was diagnosed, Alan followed the suit, taking tests a few weeks later, which yielded the same results. "I was sharing a cabin on an overnight ferry with a group of friends, and we ended up laughing about the number of times men of a certain age get up in the night,” Alan told The Sun.
Alan had no symptoms at all
While Keith did have a regular toilet use issue, Alan said he took the PSA blood test just as a joke since he never had any symptoms. "I had no symptoms at all and considered myself to be a reasonably active man, so what happened next was a bit of a shock," he said.
Alan, who welcomed his first grandchild in December, later underwent an MRI scan and a biopsy before receiving his dreaded cancer diagnosis.
The unsettling news of his younger brother's diagnosis then prompted Keith, who had previously been treated for skin cancer, to take the same test, which surprisingly returned a similar diagnosis. "If he hadn't decided to get tested, neither of us would have known we had cancer. I feel very fortunate that we both caught it before it had spread,” said Keith.
Family history of cancer with Alan and Keith
The brothers said their father was diagnosed with an enlarged prostate in his later life. Doctors who treated Alan and Keith explained how a family history of prostate cancer can increase the risks of developing it.
While the causes of prostate cancer are largely unknown, certain things do increase the risk of a patient developing the condition.
Image: The Sun
What is prostate cancer?
According to doctors, prostate cancer develops in the prostate—a small walnut-shaped gland located below the bladder and in front of the rectum in men. This tiny gland secretes fluid that mixes with semen, keeping sperm healthy for conception and pregnancy.
While prostate cancer is a serious disease, most people get diagnosed before it spreads beyond their prostate gland. Treatment at this stage often eliminates the cancer.
Signs and symptoms of prostate cancer
Early-stage prostate cancer rarely causes symptoms, but a few signs include:
Frequent, sometimes urgent need to pee
Weak urine flow or flow that starts and stops
Pain or burning when you pee
Loss of bladder control
Loss of bowel control
Painful ejaculation
Erectile dysfunction
Blood in semen
Pain in your lower back, hip, or chest
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