Prostate Cancer Treatments and Options

(This is written using web research by a non-medically qualified author, and must be treated by readers as entertainment. While every fact has been researched, on no account shall any reader treat this article as verified medical information, and any reader concerned about their health must of course approach their medical advisor for advice.)

Prostate cancer happens when cells in the prostate begin to grow out of control and can then invade nearby tissues or spread throughout the body. Large collections of this out of control tissue are called tumors.  However, some tumors are not really cancer because they cannot spread or threaten someone’s life. These are called benign tumors, as a result of this variability there are a number of prostate cancer treatment options.

Animated Explanation of Prostate Cancer

The tumors that can spread throughout the body or invade nearby tissues are considered cancer and are called malignant tumors. Usually, prostate cancer is very slow growing. However, sometimes it will grow quickly and spread to nearby lymph nodes. Lymph nodes are small, pea-sized pieces of tissue that filter and clean lymph, a clear liquid waste product. If prostate cancer has spread to your lymph nodes when it is diagnosed, it means that there is higher chance that it has spread to other areas of the body.

Prostate cancer is a very variable disease. Some tumours remain small and grow so slowly that they cause no problems and often remain undetected for decades; others are aggressive, grow quickly and become life-threatening. Many of these aggressive cases spread to the bones, where they cause severe pain.

There are modern radiation treatment systems for prostate cancer, and there are, in fact, many other treatment options for prostate cancer that is confined to the prostate gland. Each option should be considered carefully, balancing the advantages against the disadvantages as they relate to the individual man’s age, overall health and personal preferences.

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men. Because it is usually diagnosed before symptoms appear, screening and early detection are critical to finding the disease at an early stage when it can be potentially cured, and there are more treatment options.

Prostate cancer is diagnosed through the combination of a digital rectal examination and a blood test to measure prostate specific antigen (PSA). PSA is an enzyme produced in large quantities by the prostate secretory glands. Prostate cancer is hormone-sensitive or hormone-dependent, meaning that prostate cancer growth depends on androgens, particularly testosterone. The goal of hormone therapy is to dramatically reduce testosterone levels in the blood, thus slowing the rate of prostate cancer cell growth.

Treatment can give these patients several extra years of life and stop the pain of the disease, but cannot normally cure them. Treatment to lower the amount of male hgormone in the blood is sometimes called ‘androgen ablation therapy’. Treatment options vary based on the stage of the tumor. In the early stages, surgery and radiation therapy may be used to remove or kill the tumor.

Treatment should probably include radiation (either external beam and seeds) and a medication such as Lupron to reduce testosterone production (called hormonal ablation). The side effects of these medications include loss of energy, significant bone loss (osteoporosis frequently occurs within a year and a half), decreases in cognitive ability, loss of sex drive and erectile dysfunction.

Treatment choice usually depends on what specialist the patient consults. Urologists tend to recommend surgery while oncologists generally advise radiation therapy. Treatments appear to be similar with respect to disease-free survival rates. Risk of erectile dysfunction similar to conformal radiation therapy; risk of irritative urinary symptoms following brachytherapy may be higher.

There is another philososphy of treatment which is at times appropriate. Doctors call it watchful waiting, and it is best suited for men with a 10-year life expectancy or less who have a low Gleason number and whose tumor has not spread beyond the prostate. The idea is that in these men the cancer is growing so slowly, they likely won’t die from it. There is, in fact, a lot of uncertainty about how prostate cancer cells spread. Doctors measure the aggressiveness of prostate cancer on a scale called the Gleason score.

African American men suffer disproportionately from the disease, having a 50% higher incidence and a 2-fold greater mortality than do Caucasian men. The reason behind this disparity is still unclear. African American men are twice as likely as white men to develop the disease. Having a family history – a father or a brother diagnosed with prostate cancer, particularly if it is at a relatively early age – increases the risk.

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