Prostate Treatment

While prostate cancer is the most common cancer to affect men, it is actually one of the most treatable types of the disease, particularly over the last 20 years as the world of science and medicine continues to discover various effective forms of treatment.

Prostate Cancer Treatment Options

The type of prostate cancer treatment needed will depend on a variety of factors, including which of the five stages the disease is in, if it has spread beyond the prostate gland, the man's age, overall health, and whether or not they're being treated for any other diseases or illnesses. Here are the various prostate cancer treatment options commonly used today:

- Chemotherapy: There are a few drugs that have been approved by the FDA (Food & Drug Administration) for use in the U.S. for the treatment of prostate cancer, although, up until very recently, chemotherapy was only used for treating more aggressive types of cancer that had advanced or metastasized to other parts of the body. Now, clinical studies have found that a combination of new and older drugs are useful for treating prostate cancer cells that haven't responded to other forms of treatment.

- Hormone Therapy: Hormone therapy is used to shrink the size of cancerous tumors and may involve either medication or surgical treatment. An orchiectomy or orchidectomy are procedures that remove one or both of the testicles, which then causes the body to stop producing approximately 90% of its supply of testosterone, the hormone that fuels prostate cancer cells, allowing them to grow and spread to other tissue.

Since this procedure is irreversible and permanent, the large majority, nearly 75% of all men with prostate cancer, opt for drug hormone therapy instead where regular shots of various hormone medications are administered over time.

- Prostatectomy: There are several types of prostatectomy surgeries, all of which involve the removal of some part of the prostate gland. The most common type is the radical retropubic prostatectomy which removes the prostate through an incision made in the abdomen. Success rates with this surgery are anywhere from 30 to 98% depending upon the man's current health and age.

- Radiation Therapy: This prostate cancer treatment utilizes radiation to kill cancerous cells in and around the prostate gland. Radiation therapy may involve external treatment in which x-rays are targeted in the right location with the help of computer guided imaging, or through a less common procedure known as brachytherapy.

Brachytherapy uses very small metal pellets that hold radioactive materials that over time, will emit radiation to the cancer cells and kill them, and in one study, the treatment was shown to have a 90% success rate after three years. The harmless pellets that are inserted behind the testicles may remain in place even after the radioactive materials have degraded and offer an alternative to regular visits to receive treatment.

- Watchful Waiting: This form of treatment is also referred to as "active surveillance" and is used and recommended for a variety of different reasons. Older men who may not be able to tolerate other treatment options, or those who may be already affected by some other illness may opt for watchful waiting to monitor the progression of the prostate cancer with blood tests and digital rectal examinations.

Other forms of prostate cancer treatment are emerging as testing continues on new methods such as cryotherapy that uses liquid nitrogen to freeze cancerous cells and tumors, as well as high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU), in which the opposite approach is taken as cancer cells are killed by heating with the high-intensity ultrasound waves.