Prostate cancer Treatments

Once diagnosed with prostate cancer, it is important to discuss different treatment options with your doctor, keeping in mind that what works for one person may not work for another. Discuss with your physician all the potential benefits and complications of the choices before you. If detected early enough, he may suggest any of these common treatment options for prostate cancer:

Radical Prostatectomy – The most common method for the surgical removal of the prostate gland, surrounding tissues and a few lymph nodes.

• Radiation Therapy – There are two standard approaches:
• External Beam Radiation Therapy (EBRT), in which radiation is sent into the tumor from the outside with an external beam therapy.
• Brachytherapy, in which radioactive seeds are implanted directly into the tumor.
• Cyro/Thermal Ablation – Freezing or heating the prostate. The prostate is physically subjected to extreme temperatures, causing cells to die.
• Hormone – All male hormones or androgens are eliminated from the body. Since testosterone stimulates cell growth, when eliminated, the cancer stops growing and sometimes goes dormant
• Chemotherapy – Medications used to kill cancer cells. These drugs, which are injected or swallowed in pills, travel in the bloodstream, moving throughout the body. While useful against cancers that may have spread to distant parts of the body, this therapy is not used to cure prostate cancer. The primary objectives for this treatment are to reduce bone pain, lower PSA levels and shrink tumors of metastatic prostate cancer that is no longer responding to therapy.