Treatments

Treatment Options Lead to Healthy Lifestyle 

The outlook for your Prostate Cancer is promising. More prostate patients are living better and longer than ever before thanks to experienced doctors using highly advanced equipment and techniques to treat the disease.

There are a wide variety of treatments available for the management of Prostate Cancer. Treatment plans are individualized for you and vary according to when the cancer is diagnosed and which therapies will target it most successfully. Your cancer team will tailor a program designed to offer the best outcome and lifestyle for you and your family. Below are the most commonly used treatments.

Radical Prostatectomy - Surgical removal of the entire prostate gland to eliminate the cancer from spreading.

Radioactive Prostate Seed Implants - Treatment is delivered by radioactive pellets that are placed directly into the prostate and surrounding tissues. This type of treatment also is called brachytherapy. Seed implants can deliver two to four times more radiation than external beam radiation.

External Beam Radiation Therapy - Treatment with high-energy X-rays, delivered by powerful linear accelerators, that can destroy cancer cells or keep them from multiplying. The X-rays pass through the patient and preferentially kill cancer cells.

Hormone Therapy - Treatment through drugs that interrupt the body's mechanisms for producing hormones, which can either slow down or stop the growth of Prostate Cancer. Most Prostate Cancers are stimulated to grow by testosterone and other similar male hormones. When the production of these hormones is suppressed, or these hormones are prevented from getting to the tumor, the cancer will usually stop growing and shrink. This treatment can work well for many years.

Watchful Waiting - Patients whose cancers are not likely to harm them are candidates for watchful waiting. With watchful waiting, patients do not undergo treatment, but rather they are carefully monitored with routine prostate specific antigen (PSA) tests. For some patients, periodic repeat prostate biopsies also are performed.

Combination Therapy - There are many situations where combinations of the above treatments are recommended.