What do lymph nodes have to do with cancer?
Lymph is a clear fluid circulating throughout the body. Filled with infection-fighting cells, lymph carries foreign bodies, including impurities, germs and cancer cells, away from internal organs. Lymph vessels transport the lymph from organs to lymph nodes, bean-shaped collections of infection-fighting cells, which filter and capture the foreign bodies. Lymph vessels then transport the filtered lymph back into the bloodstream. Lymph vessels in the pelvis are responsible for carrying foreign bodies away from the prostate gland. If prostate cancer has spread outside the prostate gland, one of the first places it may travel is to lymph nodes in the pelvis. How are lymph nodes removed? Lymph nodes can be removed during a radical retropubic prostatectomy, or as a separate procedure called a laparoscopic lymph node dissection.
