What are the stages of prostate cancer development?

The development of solid tumors goes through two stages, local growth and metastasis. First, a tumor forms in the organ, and then the tumor gradually grows and breaks through the organ. There are two ways to break through organs, one is to grow outside the organ and invade adjacent organs, such as kidney cancer growing into the intestinal tube around the kidney; In other cases, the tumor will directly reach distant organs along the lymphatic vessels and blood vessels in the organs, for example, kidney cancer can metastasize to the abdominal lymph nodes along the lymphatic vessels, and can also metastasize to the lungs, liver and other organs through the blood vessels.

Prostate cancer is a solid tumor, so it also goes through two stages: local growth and metastasis. After the tumor is formed, it grows locally and gradually metastasizes to organs such as lymph nodes, bones, lungs, and liver.

However, the growth of prostate cancer is regulated by androgens and other factors, and the above two stages are further divided into two different stages according to the different tumor responses to androgens, namely the hormone-sensitive stage and the castration resistance stage, which are divided into four stages in total. In the early stage of the disease, most patients are hormone-sensitive, so most patients can be treated with androgen deprivation due to androgen sensitivity, which is the so-called "castration" treatment, regardless of whether there is metastasis at the time of diagnosis. After a period of treatment, resistance to castration therapy develops, that is, "castration resistance", and the treatment strategy needs to be adjusted.