Prostate Cancer

• difficulty starting to urinate or emptying your bladder
• a weak flow when you urinate
• a feeling that your bladder hasn’t emptied properly
• dribbling urine after you finish urinating
• needing to urinate more often than usual, especially at night
• a sudden need to urinate – you may sometimes leak urine before you get to the toilet.

Men with early prostate cancer will often have no symptoms because of the way the cancer grows. You’ll usually only get early symptoms if the cancer grows near the tube you urinate through (the urethra) and presses against it, changing the way you urinate (wee). But because prostate cancer usually starts to grow in a different part (usually the outer part) of the prostate, early prostate cancer doesn’t often press on the urethra and causes symptoms.

If prostate cancer breaks out of the prostate (locally advanced prostate cancer) or spreads to other parts of the body (advanced prostate cancer), it can cause other symptoms, including:

• back pain, hip pain or pelvis pain
• problems getting or keeping an erection
• blood in the urine or semen
• unexplained weight loss.

These symptoms can all be caused by other health problems. But it’s still a good idea to tell your GP about any symptoms so they can find out what’s causing them and make sure you get the right treatment if you need it.