What is the most common treatment for prostate cancer?

Answer:

Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer deaths among men in the United States, however, there are 3.1 million men living in the US who have fought diagnoses and are still alive today. According to research from the American Cancer Institute, more than 288,000 men in the United States will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2023 and the institute estimates over 34,000 cases will be fatal. Men over the age of 50 have an increased risk of developing prostate cancer, with six out of 10 diagnoses occurring in men 65 or older. The most common treatment for men with prostate cancer is active surveillance and watchful waiting. Radiation therapies, hormone treatment and prostatectomies are the most common forms of treatment for individuals with high-risk prostate cancer.

TYPES OF TREATMENT

Prostate cancer treatment is dependent on several factors:

• How advanced the cancer is

• Health, age and existing medical conditions

• Life expectancy

• Side effects of the treatment

Active Surveillance and Watchful Waiting

Active Surveillance is the preferred treatment for most men, allowing urologists to regularly check up and monitor patients with slow-growing cancers or those with limited life expectancy.

Hormone Therapy

Hormone therapy is used in advanced cases of prostate cancer, limiting the supply of hormones that cancer cells in the prostate need to grow.

Radiation Therapy

Arkansas Urology recommends radiation therapy to patients whose cancer is locally-confined to the prostate. Radiation can be delivered both inside and outside the body.

Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy, often just referred to as chemo, uses drugs to slow the spread of prostate cancer and reverse its effects. Drugs are injected into the patient’s bloodstream and work to poison cancerous cells. Common side effects of chemotherapy include nausea, hair loss and anemia.

Brachytherapy

Internal radiation allows high doses of radiation to be delivered to the immediate area of the tumor, minimizing damage to nearby tissue. Brachytherapy is advantageous for men with smaller tumors. More than 90 percent of patients continue to be disease-free five years after the procedure.

IMRT

An advanced method of delivering high-precision radiation to a malignant tumor or specific areas of the tumor, IMRT is one of the most precise forms of radiotherapy, minimizing exposure to surrounding healthy tissue.

Open Radical Prostatectomy

A major surgical procedure where the entire prostate is removed, along with seminal vesicles and other surrounding tissues. This treatment is generally reserved for younger patients with advanced tumors and localized cancer.

Radical Prostatectomy

A treatment in which the entire prostate is removed. The procedure takes two to four hours, requires a three-day hospital stay and use of a catheter for 10-21 days following surgery. Most patients report experiencing urinary incontinence after a radical prostatectomy that goes away with time.

High Intensity Focused Ultrasound

This is used for focal therapy in select cases. This treats the cancer while reducing or eliminating side effects of incontinence and impotence.

Other specialized treatments provided by Arkansas Urology include: Da Vinci Robotic-Assisted Surgery, Cryosurgery, Provenge, Space Oar Hydrogel and Xofigo.