What is Prostate Cancer - What is Prostate Cancer

For reasons not entirely known, something in the normal cells of the prostate goes awry, and the normal activity of a prostate cell changes. It looses its ability to know when to stop growing, and becomes malignant – a prostate cancer cell.

Prostate cancer cells grow at first within the confines of the prostate itself. Sometimes the cells are in only one particular area of the prostate, and sometimes they may be in several locations (‘zones”), or lobes. Prostate cancer can grow locally and pierce the capsule of the prostate toward the neighboring per-prostatic area or into the seminal vesicles. Eventually spreading further away from the prostate gland itself (metastasis) can occur, typically to the lymph nodes in the pelvis, or to the bones.
The picture above depicts normal prosate cells that form glands and prostate cancer cells that do not.