An enlarged prostate is not prostate cancer

The prostate is a small gland, about the size of a walnut, in the male
reproductive system. It produces part of the fluid in semen, sits **in front
of the rectum and just below the bladder**, and surrounds the urethra —
the tube carrying urine out of the bladder.

That anatomy is the source of nearly all the confusion about prostate
problems.

The distinction that matters most

As a man ages, the prostate tends to grow. Because it wraps around the
urethra, growth narrows the tube and makes urinating harder.

This is benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), and it is not prostate cancer.

It is worth being emphatic about, because difficulty urinating is the symptom
that most often sends a man to a doctor worried about cancer — and it is
usually caused by the other thing. There are also further prostate changes and
disorders distinct from both.

What prostate cancer is

**Prostate cancer is a disease in which cells in the prostate multiply out of
control.** Some spread to other parts of the body, which is **metastatic
prostate cancer**.

But most prostate cancers grow slowly, or simply do not grow.

Those two sentences sit side by side and both are true, which is why prostate
cancer is the cancer where screening is a decision rather than a default: the
disease that kills and the disease that never causes a problem share a name.

Cause

There is no single known cause. Age, race and ethnic group, and family
history can raise the risk — and **having risk factors does not mean you will
get prostate cancer.**

Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.