How can prostate cancer spread if my doctor “got it all” with surgery or radiation therapy?
Even the best treatment for prostate cancer may not remove or kill every last cancer cell in the body. Staging studies are done as part of the initial treatment planning to see if the cancer has spread or not. But it’s important to remember that the best scans and X-rays can’t look into the body like a microscope. Sometimes a few cells have escaped to other parts of the body, even if they can’t be detected. These cells may grow over months or years to cause problems later. The doctor uses the tumor grade and staging tests to estimate how likely this is to happen for each patient.
