U.K.-based University of East Anglia researchers discovered that men with prostate cancer have a different prostate environment than men without prostate cancer.
The study, published in Molecular Oncology, examined cells and DNA from men with and without prostate cancer. They found that men with cancer have abnormal "normal" cells through their entire prostate, which makes their entire prostate prime for cancer.
This means the whole prostate should be treated, not just the cancerous areas.
"The 'normal' prostate cells in men who have prostate cancer appear to provide a beneficial environment for prostate cancer cells to develop and grow. In other words, the whole prostate is primed and ready to develop prostate cancer driven by an, as yet unknown, biological process," lead researcher Daniel Brewer, PhD, told Labiotech.