The Disease
As you may already know, the prostate gland is located between the male bladder and the rectum and wraps around the urethra (the tube that carries urine through the penis). It secretes fluid which mixes with sperm to make semen. Prostate cancer is a malignant tumor that arises in the prostate gland. As with any cancer, if it has already advanced or is left untreated in its early stages, prostate cancer can eventually spread through the blood and lymph fluid to other organs.
As many as 90% of all prostate cancers remain dormant and clinically unimportant for decades. In fact, most older men eventually develop at least microscopic evidence of prostate cancer;, but it often grows so slowly that, as one specialist has written, many men with prostate cancer “die with it, rather than from it.” On the other hand, prostate cancer significant enough to be detected by a PSA screening (NEED LINK TO DEFINITION OF PSA SCREENING) is significant, and, if left untreated, will generally have an impact on the patient’s life.