Prostate Cancer

The prostate is a male sex gland responsible for producing fluid that forms semen. It is located below the bladder, in front of the rectum and surrounds the urethra. The prostate is divided into three zones enclosed by a capsule. The prostate capsule separates the prostate from the rest of the body.Prostate cancer occurs when the cells in the prostate gland grow out of control. When cells grow out of control, they initially spread within the prostate and then grow through the capsule that covers the prostate into neighboring organs, or break away and spread through the bloodstream and lymphatic system to other parts of the body. Prostate cancer can be relatively harmless or extremely aggressive.

Some prostate cancers are slow growing, causing few clinical symptoms. In these cases, a patient will often die with prostate cancer rather than from prostate cancer. Aggressive cancers spread rapidly to the lymph nodes, other organs and especially, bone.If cancer cells are present, the next step is to determine the stage or extent of spread of the cancer. Determining the extent of the stage of the cancer may require a number of procedures, including additional surgery (lymph node evaluation), blood tests, ultrasound, chest x-rays and occasionally, CT/MRI or bone scans. Cancer that is removed by surgical resection or needle biopsy will be classified according to the Gleason Grading System for prostate cancer. This grading system, on a scale of 2-10, helps physicians predict how rapidly the cancer is likely to spread. Higher Gleason scores are associated with more advanced and more rapidly growing cancers than lower scores.

All new treatment information concerning prostate cancer is categorized and discussed by stage. When patients have early stage cancer, the Gleason score and PSA blood level provide additional information that will help them make treatment decisions.