- A man who went to a chiropractor for hip pain was diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer.
- The 62-year-old had «deep, aching» pain in the front of his left groin, as well as his thigh and knee.
- Scans revealed he had prostate cancer that had spread to his bones, liver and lungs.
A man visited a chiropractor with hip pain after a marathon and was later diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer that had spread to his bones, according to a report.
The unnamed man, 62, experienced ‘deep, aching pain’ in the front of his left groin, which descended into his thigh and knee, for seven days after running a marathon, chiropractors wrote in a case report published Saturday in the Cureus Journal of Medical Sciences.
According to the report, he had tried anti-inflammatories, physiotherapy and acupuncture, but the pain worsened and affected his work on construction sites, as well as his running.
To determine the cause of the pain, the man had hip imaging, including an MRI, which suggested he had cancer that had spread to his pelvis, the report authors said, which work in Hong Kong.
Prostate cancer can cause back and hip pain that doesn’t get better
The chiropractor saw an oncologist who arranged a full-body PET scan of the man, which suggested prostate cancer had spread to the bones, liver and lungs. Further tests confirmed he had the most common type of prostate cancer, called adenocarcinoma.
The American Cancer Society estimates that about 288,300 people will be diagnosed with prostate cancer and about 34,700 people will die from it in 2023. Symptoms of the disease include: pain in the back, hips or pelvis that do not improve, pain or burning when urinating, painful ejaculation, and blood in the urine or semen.
The CDC recommends that people experiencing any of these symptoms — which can also be caused by other medical conditions — seek medical attention «immediately.»
The mainstay of prostate cancer treatment in the United States is surgery and radiation therapy. Treatments like chemotherapy and hormone therapy are still being researched, according to the CDC.
In this case, doctors treated the man with a combination of treatments, including chemotherapy and drugs that help protect bone health. He continued to receive «gentle» therapy from the chiropractor, which they say improved his quality of life and relieved hip pain, but it is not a proven treatment.
According to the report, the man died of a lung infection seven months after being diagnosed with prostate cancer.
The report authors said that other chiropractors who suspect a patient has prostate cancer should refer them to «the appropriate health care professionals for further investigation or treatment, due to the impact on patients if they are not diagnosed or treated».
CDC data suggests that about 96% of men who are diagnosed with prostate cancer are alive five years later.