Читать книгу What You Should Know About Prostate Cancer - Daniel C Merrill - Страница 4

1. What is the prostate?

The prostate is a nonessential organ that surrounds the male urethra at the bladder neck. The gland can vary greatly is size between individuals. The largest prostate I ever removed was the size of a grapefruit and I have encountered many that were as large as a medium sized orange; however, most prostate glands, especially in young men, are the size of a small to medium sized walnut.

Two things happen to the prostate that can impair a male’s health as he grows older. First, and most commonly, the prostate tends to increase in size and by so doing obstructs the flow of urine. This is a benign condition commonly referred to as BPH (benign prostatic hypertrophy). There are drugs, such as Proscar, that are somewhat successful in treating this condition by shrinking the prostate and a variety of surgical procedures that are designed to relieve urethral obstruction by removing the interior of the prostate gland.

The second, and potentially vastly more dangerous, change that may develop in the males prostate as they age is the malignancy commonly referred to as prostate cancer. That, of course, is the primary subject of this eBook.