Newer medical treatment may help the condition, but often surgery is performed to remove excess tissue inside the prostate. Using a special tool called a cystoscope, the physician is able to visualize the prostate and remove the tissue without having to make an incision.

Many men confuse benign prostatic hyperplasia with prostate cancer believing it is the beginning stages of prostate cancer. However this is not true and the diseases are very different. As men grow older, from about age 30, the inner portions of the prostate gland slowly enlarge which ultimately by the age of fifty to sixty results in benign prostatic hypertrophy. Prostatic cancer tends not to effect the inner portion but the outer portion of the gland. Both diseases are hard to distinguish from each other since they share some of the same symptoms and sometimes they can both exist at the same time. It is best to see your physician for an exam whenever you have any symptoms. The symptoms noted most commonly with prostate cancer are:

• pain or a burning sensation when urinating
• difficulty in urination or a weak or interupted urine flow
• pain in the lower back, upper thighs or pelvis which is relatively constant.