Improved Outcomes
Prostate cancer is a disease in which malignant cells form in the tissues of the prostate.After skin cancer, prostate cancer is the most common cancer in males. The good news is that the outlook for men diagnosed with prostate cancer is better than ever. Fifty-eight percent of all prostate cancers are found early, while the tumor is still localized, and the five-year survival rate for these men is 99 percent."
Enhanced treatment options
The treatment that will work best for you depends on several factors. These include your overall health status, age and the grade and stage of the prostate cancer when it is first diagnosed. It is essential to take the time to research your treatment options, ask questions and weigh the benefits of each treatment option against its drawbacks, side effects, and risks. The most common treatment options for prostate cancer include surgery, radiation, hormone therapy and watchful waiting.
Radiation Therapy:
Radiation is used as an option instead of surgery and also if the cancer is not completely removed or comes back (recurs) in the area of the prostate after surgery. External beam radiation therapy (EBRT) is non-invasive and painless. It is much like getting a regular x-ray, but for a longer time. Newer technologies such as IGRT and Varian’s Trilogy® machine for delivering RapidArc™ allow for greater precision in treating the prostate cancer while reducing the radiation exposure to nearby healthy tissues, with actual treatment times under 2 minutes. These new techniques appear to offer better chances of increasing the success rate in curing prostate cancer and reducing the side effects of the treatment.
Surgery
The most common operations for prostate cancer are radical prostatectomy and transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP).
Hormone Therapy
The goal of hormone therapy (also called androgen deprivation) is to lower the levels of the male hormones or androgens, such as testosterone. Androgens, which are made mostly in the testicles, cause prostate cancer cells to grow. Lowering androgen levels often makes prostate cancer shrink or grow more slowly. Hormone therapy can control, but will not cure the cancer. It is not a substitute for treatments aimed at a cure.
Watchful waiting
Because prostate cancer often grows very slowly, older men with low risk tumors could be followed and no treatment given. This approach is called watchful waiting (also called expectant management). It is less often a choice if you are younger, healthy, and have a fast-growing cancer.