The abnormal condition, which appears when the cancerous cells start to multiply at an abnormal and rapid rate while the normal ones experience a fast growth and die even faster, is known under the name of cancer; cancer determines the spreading of the primary tumor from the primary site to other surrounding areas of the infected part of the body, by growing different small and secondary tumors, until, eventually, the cancer becomes metastasized. The spreading process begins once the cancerous cells enter into the bloodstream or the lymph fluid; these cells travel at an alarming speed through the blood vessels or the lymph system, formed by the lymph nodes and the lymph vessels that carry the lymph, a clear fluid, to the heart. If the cancer is diagnosed as locally advance, left untreated, it will eventually become metastatic, leading to a painful death.

The cancer is named after the body part from where it starts developing, so, if the primary tumor appears in the prostate gland then the disease will have the name of prostate cancer. If we are talking about the existence of two or more metastatic tumors, doctors refer to this condition as metastases. If the cancer is recurrent and comes back as metastases, this condition is known as distant recurrence; sometimes the cancer has spread so far or the spreading process is so complex that physicians find it hard to identify the exact body part where the primary tumor is: in this situation the medical community name the cancer as cancer of unknown primary. Carcinomas are more likely to metastasize to bone in comparison to the sarcomas and the most common bone sites affected by the metastatic cancer are the spine, the pelvis or the hip, the femur or the upper leg bone, the ribs, the humerus or the upper arm bone and the skull; in most cases the distant bone structures are less likely to get infected by tumors if the patient starts a treatment immediately after the diagnose.

The bones structures are the third most common site affected by the metastatic cancer, either being a breast cancer, a prostate cancer or any other type of cancer and the MRI detection method or the magnetic resonance imaging, is considered as the most sensitive one, allowing the spotting of the cancerous cells long before they reach and affect the bone structures. The other recommended methods of detection are the radionuclide bone scans and the coaxial tomography. The symptoms associated with bone metastasis are pain, hypercalcemia and pathological fractures. The metastasized cancer will cause pain, reported by almost seventy percent of the patients diagnosed with bone metastases; this happens dew to the predilection of the prostate cancer to affect first the bone structures. The pain is caused because of the tumor, responsible for the stretching of the periosteum but also because of the nerve stimulation in the endosteum. The metastatic bone lesions are characterized as osteolytic, osteoblastic or mixed. Osteolytic lesions or tumors can cause an abnormal resorption of bone by the enzymes known as proteolytic and the spreading process outstrips the laying down of the new bone. Osteoblatic tumors cause a secretion of bone extracellular matrix proteins or ECM; in other words the tumor stimulates the bone growth. In most cases the lesions are identified as mixed.

For the advanced forms of cancer, especially when the bone system is affected, the recommended treatments are chemotherapy, a healing procedure used not only for treating cancer but also for cases of leukemia, the radiotherapy or the radiation therapy, a procedure used for damaging the DNA of the cancerous cells and to stop their multiplication; the radiotherapy is works by inserting radioactive seeds into the gland and leave them there to slowly decay or by using the external proton beam radiation. The side effects for both treatment procedures can not be avoided.
Before choosing for a treatment, the doctor will advise you and explain what are the consequences of the prostate cancer, so make sure to listen to whatever he says or recommends.