Recent Discoveries in Enlarged Prostate Syndrome
Research is changing the way urologists view enlargements of the prostate, known as benign prostate hypertrophy or BPH. Recent findings suggest that the condition is more complex than originally thought, and these insights are pointing the way to promising new strategies for diagnosis and treatment. BPH should be distinguished from prostate cancer which has been the subject of a previous blog on this site.
Until recently, BPH was considered to be a single disease responsible for a variety of lower urinary tract symptoms, ranging from discomfort while urinating to the inability to urinate at all. But a new discovery by Johns Hopkins researchers challenges that view. The Hopkins team, lead by Robert Getzenberg, Ph.D., suggest that there may be at least two forms of BPH: one type with mild symptoms that are unlikely to cause urinary tract complications and another, more severe form that can lead to irreversible bladder damage. Knowing which form of BPH a man has at diagnosis could help guide treatment choices. The Team also developed a blood test that detects JM-27 protein found in men with severe symptoms. The JM-27 diagnostic test, if eventually approved by the FDA, could be used to identify men with this highly symptomatic form of the disease early, before there is any damage to the bladder or urinary tract.