What is prostate cancer?

Prostate cancer happens when cells in the prostate gland change and start to grow quickly. These cancer cells can affect how the prostate works normally, and after a long period of time they may spread to other organs of the body.

Prostate cancer generally occurs in older men. It is often a slow growing cancer and problems may not occur for many years. Small areas of cancer cells within the prostate gland are common, especially so in older men. Sometimes these cancer cells do not grow very quickly and they do not cause any problems or symptoms. In other cases prostate cancer cells grow more quickly and can spread to other parts of the body.

How common is prostate cancer?

In Ireland, prostate cancer is the second most common cancer in men, after skin cancer. Each year about 2500 new cases of prostate cancer are diagnosed. This means that 1 in 12 Irishmen will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during their lifetime. Although there are many men with this disease, most men do not die from it.