Prostate cancer treatment

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Ideally, treating any type of malignancy should cure the disease as well as be easily tolerated, and cause minimal or no problems. This concept is particularly important in treating prostate cancer. Although some men have an aggressive form that can lead to early spread and death, many have slow growing tumours that would never cause problems during a patient’s natural lifetime. As there is no absolute way to determine which patients in this later group will progress, many patients opt for prostate cancer treatment. It is important that medical intervention does not convert this group of healthy men into sufferers from medical care related side effects. Prostate cancer treatment depends on several factors such as the stage, type and grade of the disease as well as on the patient's age and general health condition. Before deciding which option is appropriate in your case you may need more than one visit to the clinic to discuss all your concerns and questions.

The most common options for disease confined to the gland include:

• Surgery  - local kind of therapy which includes removal of either the whole organ (radical prostatectomy) or part of the organ (transurethral resection)
• Radiotherapy  - therapy using either external radiation beam that is focused and delivered to the affected area of the organ (external beam radiotherapy = conformal radiotherapy) 
• Brachytherapy. Tiny radioactive seeds are inserted directly into the cancerous gland  which allows higher doses of radiation to be delivered without damaging the surrounding organs.
• Hormone therapy - aims to treat this condition by depriving the body of hormone testosterone (male sex hormone). Given before radiotherapy or as an additional therapy for 1-3 years afterwards.
• Watchful waiting (active surveillance) - active monitoring of a low grade and less aggressive type of this condition with no immediate active treatment can be an option as well. This involves regular blood tests for PSA. In some cases this may be the only option used as the disease may progress very slowly or at all. This way other treating techniques, with the associated side effects, may be avoided.

The less common treatment options which are being tested in clinical trials include: 

• Cryotherapy - use of extremely cold gas to freeze and destroy cancer tissue
• High frequency ultrasound
• Chemotherapy - use of toxic drugs to destroy cancer cells

Treatments for cancer which has spread from the gland:-

• Hormones
• Palliative radiotherapy
• Chemotherapy

Further general information Your doctors and specialist nurses are in an ideal position to give you relevant information on your disease and treatment as they know your individual circumstances. Cancerbackup has a help line (0808 800 1234) and a prize winning video available in English, Italian, Urdu, Bengali, Gujarati & Hindi explaining Radiotherapy & Chemotherapy. Cancernet.co.uk has over 500 pages describing cancer, its management, practical tips and tool which patients, their carers and their doctors have found helpful during the cancer journey.