A diagnosis of cancer is always frightening. Once the shock wears off, patients have to decide what to do next. And for most of the estimated 192,000 American men who will be diagnosed with prostate cancer this year, the decisions can be nearly as overwhelming as the diagnosis itself. Because scientific studies have not established which treatments are best, patients with early prostate cancer are asked to choose between deferred treatment (watchful waiting or active surveillance); surgery (conventional, laparoscopic, or robot-assisted); and radiation (external beam, proton beam, or brachytherapy with implanted radioactive seeds, with or without hormone therapy). To make ...

Cough for a minute or two, and you may think something has "gone down the wrong pipe." Cough for a day or two, and you may think you've picked up a cold or the flu. After a week, bronchitis or allergies may come to mind. But after three or four weeks, your mind starts to race, and the worry begins to mount.

For most men, chronic coughing raises the specter of cancer. But is cancer really a common cause of a cough that lingers? And if it's not, what is — and what can you do to quiet a nagging ...

  Researchers in Spain found that a man's diet can affect his fertility.  

Q. I'm 55 years old, and I only need glasses for reading. Recently though, I've seen tiny black specs that move around in random directions. My eyes are not red, watery, or painful, but I'm worried that I may have the start of an eye disease.

A. The short answer is that your symptoms suggest a common and medically unimportant problem called floaters. But since your eyesight could suffer if you neglect flashes or the sudden appearance of large or numerous floaters, a long answer may be helpful.

The large chamber at the back of your eye is filled with ...