Prostate Cancer - Symptoms

Symptoms

Prostate cancer usually doesn't cause symptoms in its early stages. Between 60% and 70% of men who are older than 80 who have prostate cancer have no symptoms.³

When there are symptoms, they may include:

• Having difficulty starting your urine stream. This is called hesitancy.
• Having a weaker-than-normal urine stream.
• Not being able to urinate at all.
• Having to urinate often.
• Feeling that your bladder is not emptying completely when you urinate.
• Having to get up at night to urinate. This is called nocturia.
• Having pain or a burning feeling when you urinate. This is called dysuria.
• Having blood in your urine. This is called hematuria.
• Having blood in your semen. This is called hematospermia.
• Having a deep pain in your lower back, abdomen, hip, or pelvis.

These symptoms may also be caused by:

• Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), which is an enlarged prostate. This is very common in older men. The prostate usually grows larger with age. When it gets large enough, it can press against the urethra—the tube that carries urine from the bladder through your penis—and cause bladder problems.
• Prostatitis, an infection in the prostate.
• Urinary tract infection, an infection in any of the organs that make urine or the tubes that carry it out of the body.

Symptoms that may indicate the cancer has spread, or metastasized, to other parts of the body include:

• Weight loss.
• Bone pain, especially in the lower abdomen, hip, pelvis, or lower back.
• Swelling in the legs and feet.

For more information about prostate cancer that has come back or spread, see the topic Prostate Cancer, Advanced or Metastatic.