Immediate treatment– Immediate treatment may not be necessary, for the men who diagnosed with prostate cancer at low risk, treatment may not be necessary right away. Some men never need any treatment. Instead, sometimes doctors recommend active surveillance. Inactive surveillance, regular follow-up blood tests, rectal exams, and possibly biopsies can be done to monitor the progression of cancer. If these tests show that the cancer is progressing, you may opt for a treatment of prostate cancer such as surgery or radiation therapy.
Surgical removal of the prostate
Surgery for prostate cancer involves removing the prostate gland and some nearby tissue and a few lymph nodes. Radical prostatectomy may be performed in many ways:
- Using a robot to assist with the surgery
- Making an incision in the abdomen
Radical prostatectomy has a risk of urinary incontinence and erectile dysfunction. Ask your doctor to explain the risks that you may face based on the situation.
Radiation therapy- In this procedure, the cancer cells are killed by using high-powered energy. Radiation therapy for prostate cancer can be delivered in two ways:
External beam radiation- In this procedure, the radiation comes from outside your body. You will lie on the table and a machine moves around your body, directing high-powered energy beam such as protons or x-rays on prostate cancer.
Brachytherapy (Radiation is placed inside your body): This procedure involves placing many rice-sized radioactive seeds in the prostate tissue. These radioactive seeds emit a low dose of radiation over a long period of time. The radioactive seeds are implanted by your doctor in your prostate using a needle guided by ultrasound images. These radioactive tracers don’t need to be removed they eventually stop emitting radiation.
Hormone therapy
The hormone therapy treatment is given to stop the production of the male hormone testosterone. By cutting off the supply of testosterone may cause cancer cells to grow more slowly and even die.
- Medications and drugs that stop the growth of progesterone are given.
- Orchiectomy: In this method, the testicles removed surgically, it reduces testosterone levels in your body.
Freezing prostate tissue
Cryosurgery or cryoablation include freezing tissue to kill the cancer cells.
During cryosurgery for prostate cancer, small needles are inserted in the prostate with the help of an ultrasound image as guidance. Very cool gas is placed in the needles, which causes surrounded tissue to freeze. After that, another gas is placed in the needles to reheat the tissue. This cycle of freezing kills the cancer cells and some surrounding healthy tissues.
This method is more frequently used by the men who have not been helped by radiation therapy. Cryosurgery’s initial attempts may result in high complication rates and unacceptable side effects. However, the latest technologies have low complication rates, improved cancer control, and made the procedure easier to tolerate.
Chemotherapy
In chemotherapy drugs are given to kill the rapidly growing cancer cells. Chemotherapy drugs can be injected via a vein in your arm, in pill form, or both.
Biological therapy
Biological therapy, also known as immunotherapy works by using your body’s immune system to fight the cancer cells.