 Only males have prostate gland, it is placed just under the bladder. The tube through which urine moves from the bladder (urethra) firstly goes through the prostate gland and only then out through the penis. The matter is that prostate gland can become enlarged in many men with the age and causes difficulty with urination in such a way.
The primary role of the prostate gland is to create liquid which forms part of semen and helps to nourish sperm. The prostate gland locates opposite the back passage or “rectum” which is why if a doctor examines the prostate gland they feel it by inserting a finger into your back passage. This procedure is also called a “digital rectal examination” or DRE for short. By touching the prostate gland the doctor can tell how enlarged the gland is and whether it feels normal or cancerous, this can then give a picture of prostate cancer if it exists.
Cells in the prostate gland are turning over all the time to restore old with new but sometimes this process can get out of control. Cancer is the name for cells which have lost control of their restoration process and start to develop unrestrained. They begin to gather into a group of cells called a “tumour”. As the cells grow they can start to encroach into surrounding tissues. This process is called acting in a “malignant” fashion. Cells can break off the tumour and spread to other places in the body, as a rule through the blood stream. The cells can then grow where they have settled, often in far-away parts of the body like bones or brain. These deposits are often called “secondaries” or “metastases”. These deposits are not new cancers but are groups of cancer cells spread from the original or “primary” cancer in the prostate gland.
Typically in prostate cancer this process of tumour development followed by invasion then metastasis is comparatively slow and can arise over many months or years. That is why some men may have prostate cancer but never have a problem because of it that is to say their prostate cancer grows so unhurriedly that other diseases or illnesses (e.g. heart attack or stroke) cause problems or even death before the prostate cancer has developed far enough to cause symptoms or spread from the prostate. With up to date treatments many men with early prostate cancer can be cured and in many more the prostate cancer can be managed and the invasion process slowed even more. In actual fact, prostate cancer survival rates vary widely around the world, although detection in 3rd World countries is often poorly catalogued.
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