Therapy for prostate cancer

Prostate cancer and important facts regarding the treatment

It is well known how serious prostate cancer is, but it is also well known how important early detection of this often even life threatening problem is. However, which kind of treatment will be suggested to each individual diagnosed with this type of cancer depends on several factors, of which only some are the overall health of the person in question, the speed at which the cancer is growing, as well as how much it has already progressed. Even though the detection at the early stage increases the chances of successful final outcome, there are men who do not need treatment immediately, but the doctors only recommend careful and regular monitoring of the cancer's progression. There are several tests and exams that are regularly performed in such cases and if the results confirm that the cancer is not progressing, which is also possible, and the person in question does not experience any symptoms and health problems due to its presence, it is very likely that such type of cancer will progress extremely slowly and that only a small part of the prostate will be affected.

Methods of treatment at disposal

Radiation therapy is very often employed in the treatment of various types of cancer because high-powered energy that it uses is very successful at destroying the cancerous cells. In cases of prostate cancer, external beam radiation and brachytherapy are actually ways in which radiation therapy is delivered. This means that the patient will either undergo the treatment from the outside, or radioactive seeds will be placed in the tissue of the prostate.

Hormone therapy which is employed in cases of prostate cancer has the purpose to make the body stop producing testosterone, the hormone that helps the cancerous cells to grow. In this way, the cancer might shrink, or its growth might be slowed down. There are medications that have the power to stop the production of this hormone by the body, but there are also those that prevent the hormone in question to reach the cancer cells. However, the same goal can be achieved through surgery, which is radical and which involves removal of the testicles.

Radical prostatectomy is a surgery procedure which is employed when the prostate gland needs to be removed, and often lymph nodes and tissue that surround it might need to be removed to a certain extent as well.

Other methods that are also at disposal for the treatment include cryosurgery or cryoablation, which is a procedure that consists of freezing the prostate tissue; chemotherapy; and the procedure that employs powerful waves for heating the prostate, which results in the destruction of the cancer cells.