Types of Prostate Cancer Diagnoses

According to the American Cancer Society, it is estimated that over 217,000 men were diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2010. It is also estimated that 6,380 men were diagnosed with prostate cancer in Georgia alone. Male prostate cancer accounts for about 15 percent of all cancer diagnoses in Georgia, the most of any cancer in the entire state for 2010. Though one form of the disease -- adenocarcinoma -- accounts for nearly every prostate cancer diagnosis, there are a couple of other types of prostate cancer that men can be diagnosed with, including:

• Small cell carcinoma
• Squamous cell carcinoma

Adenocarcinoma of the prostate accounts for approximately 95 percent of all prostate cancer incidences. This form of the disease originates in the peripheral area of the prostate gland. Changes in the size, shape or texture of the prostate are characteristics of adenocarcinoma of the prostate. The term adenocarcinoma is a combination of two words meaning epithelial cell cancer in a glandular part of the body.

While adenocarcinoma of the prostate is a very common diagnosis, other rarer types of prostate cancer exist. Small cell carcinoma of the prostate consists of small, round cancer cells. Typically forming at nerve cells, small cell carcinoma of the prostate can be a very aggressive disease that is more difficult to detect than adenocarcinomas, leading to a greater possibility that a doctor will fail to diagnose the prostate cancer in a timely manner.

Squamous cell carcinoma of the prostate is very similar to small cell carcinoma in that it has an aggressive nature and often goes undetected until it has reached an advanced stage. There are other forms of prostate cancer, such as sarcomas and transitional cell carcinomas, but they are extremely rare.