Prostate cancer
Several types of cells are found in the prostate, but almost all prostate cancers develop from the gland cells (the cells that make the prostate fluid that is added to the semen). The medical term for a cancer that starts in gland cells isadenocarcinoma.
Other types of cancer can also start in the prostate gland, including:
SarcomasSmall cell carcinomasNeuroendocrine tumors (other than small cell carcinomas)Transitional cell carcinomas
But these types of prostate cancer are so rare that if you have prostate cancer it is almost certain to be an adenocarcinoma. The rest of this document refers only to prostate adenocarcinoma.
Some prostate cancers can grow and spread quickly, but most grow slowly. In fact, autopsy studies show that many older men (and even some younger men) who died of other causes also had prostate cancer that never affected them during their lives. In many cases neither they nor their doctors even knew they had it.