What are the Treatment Options for Prostate Cancer?
Active Surveillance — In this treatment option, the doctor will have detected cancer but thinks it is best to watch the cancer and see if grows and changes over a period of time.
This typically involves having the patient undergo ultrasounds, prostate-specific antigen blood tests, and digital rectal exams. The patient would visit the doctor on a regular basis in order to monitor the cancer.
Surgery — If your prostate cancer has stayed inside the prostate gland, surgery is often one of the best and most successful treatment options for removing the cancer. This is the best option for Stage 1 or Stage 2 cancer patients. A radical prostatectomy is performed, and the prostate gland along with the seminal vesicles are removed during the operation.
Radiation Therapy — Radiation therapy may be used in order to kill the cancer cells that have formed in the prostate. This is often the treatment that doctors choose to use if the cancer has spread outside the prostate gland. Many patients who have radiation therapy performed for prostate cancer also have hormone therapy done at the same time.
Cryosurgery — This is a good treatment option for patients who have detected their prostate cancer in its earliest stages. During this operation, the cancer cells are frozen in the prostate and then removed from the body. Men who have large prostate glands often cannot utilize this treatment option.
Chemotherapy — Chemotherapy is an option for patients who have had cancer spread outside the prostate gland, and have also found hormone therapy to be unsuccessful. Anti-cancer drugs are typically administered to the patient through an IV or they can be taken orally, depending on the patient’s particular situation.
The treatment option that is necessary for you will depend on a variety of different factors, such as your current age, the stage of your cancer, and your general physical health. Each treatment carries its own set of benefits and risks and its own rate of success in curing the cancer.
