Prostate cancer · Guide
Prostate cancer explorer: guide
Show the body, enter size and location from the report, explain the selected plan, and share a matching picture sheet.
For patients and families
Look at the picture together
The picture opens with the same see-through body used in the rectal explorer. Choose Pelvis to see the bladder, prostate, rectum and supporting muscles, then Prostate to move closer. Drag to turn it and scroll or pinch to zoom.
The prostate sits below the bladder and in front of the rectum. The urethra passes through it. The seminal vesicles sit behind the bladder and make part of semen.
Show what your team has found
Your clinician can enter a confirmed tumour’s longest diameter on imaging in millimetres, its side, whether it is at the lower end (apex), middle or upper end (base), and its zone and front/back position. The purple finding changes with those settings. The rounded shape and location are schematic, rather than a copy of your MRI.
A cut-away and a simple slice help you see inside. This version shows one lesion within the prostate. It does not show multiple tumours or growth outside the gland and cannot tell you the cancer’s stage.
Things you could ask
“Can you show me where it is, using my report?”
“How big is it, and which part of the prostate is involved?”
“What would the operation remove, and how would urine pass afterwards?”
“How could the options affect passing urine, sex or fertility?”
Take it home
Ask for a picture sheet with the views you discussed, your team’s explanation and the labels in plain English. A QR code reopens the same model settings on your phone. Names, notes and contact details are never included in that code or saved online.
For clinicians
Start with orientation
The explorer uses the rectal explorer’s shared body, anatomical coordinate system, pelvic landmarks, renderer, labels and consultation layout. It opens at normal anatomy with no tumour or operation. Whole body, Pelvis and Prostate change the camera in one continuous scene; the body outline remains available throughout.
Set up from the report
| Control | What to set |
|---|---|
| Tumour on the model | Add one confirmed lesion within the prostate. Changing a tumour setting also adds it and opens the cut-away, as in the rectal explorer. |
| Longest tumour diameter | 3–50 mm from imaging, with matching numeric input and slider. Biopsy-core cancer length is not the lesion diameter. The entered diameter controls a rounded 3D finding and the measurement label; it does not specify an actual tumour shape. |
| Position from apex to base | Apex (inferior), mid-gland or base (superior, near the bladder), using the terminology in the report. |
| Patient side | Patient’s right, midline or patient’s left. Positive model X is patient left; front and axial views put patient left on the screen’s right. |
| Zone and front/back position | Peripheral or transition zone, and anterior or posterior. These are broad illustration locations, not a full MRI sector map. Larger lesions may be centred more deeply to stay inside the schematic gland. |
| Prostate dimensions | Width, apex-to-base height and front-to-back depth, in mm. Defaults of 38 × 30 × 26 mm reproduce the existing male pelvic model and are illustrative unless replaced with report values. |
| Show / hide | The same layer controls as the rectal tool: body outline, contextual rectum/fat/muscles/sacrum, nearby organs, cut-away, inner zone, labels and measurements. |
Explain a selected plan
Radical prostatectomy colours the prostate and seminal vesicles teal in situ. After the prostate is removed shows the bladder brought down and joined to the remaining urethra. The team selects the plan. Lymph node dissection, nerve sparing, catheters and functional outcomes are not modelled; explain these separately.
Picture sheet and QR code
Capture up to four views with Snapshot. Optional patient details, a nurse contact and a note stay on the device. Preview the A4 pages, then download PDF, print or save as a picture. The second page explains the labels. The QR link stores validated model settings after # in the URL, with no names, notes or contact details.
Changing anatomical, tumour, operation or layer settings clears older snapshots so the images and explanation stay consistent. Changing the camera lets you add another view of the same configuration. Start again clears the model, snapshots, personal fields, link and Patient view between appointments.
Limits
- The model illustrates one intraprostatic lesion. It does not represent multiple lesions, capsular extension, seminal vesicle invasion, lymph node status, MRI signal, grade or risk.
- The tumour’s rounded shape and its broad sector/level are approximate. This is a report-led conversation aid, not patient-specific reconstruction.
- If the entered tumour diameter exceeds the smallest gland dimension, the model cannot contain the rounded lesion. It retains the entered numbers, shows a warning and blocks snapshots/export until the dimensions are corrected. This is a modelling limit, not a judgement about the scan or stage.
- The postoperative join and bladder movement are schematic. This view does not plan an operation or predict its results.
Sources and review
- Cambridge University Hospitals: prostate cancer and anatomy
- Royal United Hospitals Bath: radical prostatectomy
- Cambridge University Hospitals: prostatectomy and the bladder–urethra join
- NICE NG131: prostate cancer diagnosis and management
Practising urologist review is still needed for clinical teaching use. Please send corrections through feedback.