Treating Prostate Cancer
Treating Prostate Cancer
What happens if prostate cancer is found? No two men with prostate cancer
are the same. Many factors affect the decision whether or not to treat the
disease: the patient's age, whether the cancer has spread, the presence of
other medical conditions, and the patient's overall health.
When prostate cancer has been found in its early stages and has not spread
beyond the prostate, a doctor and his patient may decide upon
* watchful waiting — monitoring the patient's prostate cancer by
* performing the PSA test and DRE regularly, and treating it only if and
* when the prostate cancer causes symptoms or shows signs of growing;
* surgery (radical prostatectomy) — removing the prostate; external
* radiation therapy — destroying cancer cells by directing radiation at
* the prostate; internal radiation therapy (brachytherapy) — surgically
* placing small radioactive pellets inside or near the cancer to destroy
* cancer cells; hormone therapy — giving certain hormones to keep
* prostate cancer cells from growing; cryotherapy — placing a special
* probe inside or near the prostate cancer to freeze and destroy the
* cancer cells.
More advanced prostate cancers that have spread beyond the prostate can be
complex to treat and may be incurable. Patients should discuss with their
doctor the best course of action.
Do these treatments have side effects?
Side effects from prostate cancer
treatment depend mainly on the type of treatment, the patient’s age, and his
overall health. Men can experience pain, discomfort, and other mild to severe
side effects that may be temporary or may last a long time. Two important
side effects are impotence and incontinence. When a doctor explains the
treatment options, he or she can discuss how mild or severe side effects
might be, and how long they might last. Also, a doctor may be able to perform
surgery or prescribe drugs to relieve some side effects.
Prostate Cancer News
Prostate size and other neglected factors influence prostate cancer treatment satisfaction
18 Mar 2008 at 10:00pm
Men with prostate cancer and their partners face difficult decisions regarding treatment, and accurate information regarding expected outcomes can be hard to find, according to results of a multicenter study published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Prostate Size, Other Neglected Factors Influence Prostate Cancer Treatment Satisfaction
21 Mar 2008 at 1:00am
Men with prostate cancer and their partners face difficult decisions regarding treatment, and accurate information regarding expected outcomes can be hard to find, according to results of a multi-center study published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Prostate Cancer Treatment Can Be Risky
19 Feb 2008 at 2:46am
For some men with prostate cancer, the risks of hormone treatment may outweigh the benefits, new research suggests.
Is Prostate Specific Antigen Velocity Selective For Clinically Significant Prostate Cancer In Screening?
3 May 2008 at 1:00am
UroToday.com - With the knowledge that screening for prostate cancer will lead to over detection and subsequent over treatment, the call for tests discriminating between non aggressive and aggressive prostate cancer is growing. If pre-biopsy data could make this distinction, a lot of unnecessary biopsies would be spared.
Sequential Treatment For Recurrent Localized Prostate Cancer
19 Apr 2008 at 2:45am
UroToday.com - Management of locally recurrent prostate cancer after initial treatment is the subject of several studies. The only level 1 data that exists is on the use of adjuvant radiotherapy to the prostatic fossa after prostatectomy for T3 and/or margin positive disease. Bolla et al.
Utilization Of Deferred Treatment/Watchful Waiting Among Prostate Cancer Survivors In The Physicians Health Study
11 Jun 2008 at 9:00am
ORLANDO, FL (UroToday.com) - Given significant morbidity and cost of prostate cancer treatment, overtreatment of the disease is a significant public health concern.
Erectile Dysfunction After External Beam Radiotherapy For Prostate Cancer
10 May 2008 at 1:00am
UroToday.com - Currently, the most common curative treatment options for men with localized prostate cancer are radical prostatectomy, external beam radiotherapy and interstitial permanent brachytherapy and radical prostatectomy. Treatment decisions should particularly consider the specific risk and toxicity profile of a treatment method.
Prostate Cancer Treatment Research To Benefit From Collaboration Between UF Scientists And German Firm
21 Jun 2008 at 6:00am
University of Florida department of urology officials have signed an agreement to collaborate with the German biopharmaceutical company CureVac to test an experimental therapy for advanced prostate cancer patients who no longer respond to traditional treatment.
Treatment Benefit In Prostate Cancer Predicted By Counting Tumor Cells In Blood
7 Jul 2008 at 2:00am
Counting the number of tumor cells circulating in the bloodstream of patients with castration-resistant prostate cancer can accurately predict how well they are responding to treatment, new results show.
AUA 2008: Legislation needed to provide coverage for ED treatment after prostatectomy
14 May 2008 at 10:00pm
Men who have developed erectile dysfunction following surgery for prostate cancer usually do not have insurance coverage for ED treatment even though their insurance policies cover surgery for prostate cancer. In contrast, federal law requires that insurance companies which cover mastectomy for breast cancer treatment also cover breast reconstruction.
Visualisation Software To Aid Prostate Cancer Detection
23 Jul 2008 at 5:00am
Visualisation specialists See3D, a spin off company of the University of Aberystwyth, is developing unique, sophisticated computer-generated models that will help doctors to improve the diagnosis and treatment of prostate cancer. More than 35,000 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer each year in the UK alone and approximately 10,000 deaths per year are associated with this form of cancer.
Life Quality After Prostate Cancer
20 Mar 2008 at 3:32am
Neglected side effects such as urinary difficulty, energy, and mood affect men's satisfaction with their prostate cancer treatment choice.
Prostate treatment questioned
9 Jul 2008 at 12:34am
A prostate-cancer study that could change how doctors treat some patients found that widely used hormone-blocking drugs did not improve survival chances for older men whose disease hadn't spread.
Prostate cancer vaccines more effective with hormone therapy
9 Jul 2008 at 10:00pm
(American Association for Cancer Research) Among patients with castration-resistant prostate cancer, the addition of hormone therapy following vaccine treatment improved overall survival compared with either treatment alone or when the vaccine followed hormone treatment, according to recent data published in the July 15 Clinical Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.
5-alpha-reductase inhibitors and reduced prostate cancer risk: a mixed set of results
14 Apr 2008 at 10:00pm
Compared to placebo treatment, taking 5-alpha-reductase inhibitors (5-ARIs) can reduce a man's risk of being diagnosed with prostate cancer from around 5-9 percent to around 4-6 percent during up to 7 years of treatment, according to a new Cochrane Review.