Prostate cancer is one of the most commonly diagnosed cancers in men today. But you have many treatment options available.
Treating Prostate Cancer
Prostate cancer is one of the most commonly diagnosed cancers in men today. But you have many treatment options available to treat your prostate cancer. The main treatment options include surgery (radical) prostatectomy, radiation therapy, hormone therapy, and watchful waiting.
Your prostate cancer treatment choice depends on many factors, including stage and extent of cancer, Gleason score aggressiveness measurement, prostate specific antigen (PSA) level, your age, and your health. You should work closely with your physicians, including urologists and radiation oncologists, to select the best treatment option for you.
Radical Prostatectomy, removal of the prostate gland, is one of most common treatments. Using laparoscopic and robotic-assisted techniques, like the da Vinci robot, Saint Francis urologists are able to perform a nerve-sparing prostatectomy, greatly reducing the risk of impotence and incontinence. These minimally invasive techniques equate to quicker recovery, smaller incision, and less damage to sensitive tissue.
External Beam Radiation Therapy directs radiation beams on the prostate gland. Using 3D conformal or intensity modulated radio therapy (IMRT), radiation oncologists direct and shape the radiation beams to maximize radiation dosage to the prostate cancer, while minimizing doses to surrounding healthy tissue.
Brachytherapy involves transrectal-ultrasound-guided placement of radioactive seeds directly into the prostate gland. This technique allows a high concentration of radiation to the prostate cancer, but avoids high doses of radiation to the healthy surrounding tissues.
CyberKnife Stereotactic Ablative Radiotherapy combines the non-invasive nature of external beam radiation therapy and the highly concentrated dose to cancer in brachytherapy. It consists of a short course of highly accurate and dense dose of X-ray to prostate cancer and achieves a cure in many well-selected patients.
Hormone Therapy, also called androgen deprivation therapy (ADT), blocks the testicle's production of androgen. Androgens stimulate prostate cancer growth, therefore suppression or lowering the androgen levels often makes prostate cancers shrink or grow more slowly. However, hormone therapy alone cannot cure prostate cancer.
Watchful Waiting may be an appropriate therapeutic option for older patients with less aggressive tumor growth and low PSA levels or for men who are not candidates for aggressive treatment.
Each treatment option offers comparable results with varying degrees of side effects. Certain patients may not be candidates for one or more of these prostate cancer treatments options.
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