Prostate Cancer Treatments Follow Three Basic Approaches

2007-03-08 10:33:40

( Pharmeceutical-Medical )



Theoretically, all men are at risk of prostate cancer. Prevalence increases with age, and the increase with age is greater for prostate cancer than for any other cancer. If you are over fifty, you should take greater precautions.

Too often, prostate cancer does not give you warning symptoms in its earliest stages when prostate treatment may still stop it. By the time you experience notable symptoms, the cancer may have reached an incurable stage. This is the reason it's called the silent male cancer.

Cancer is not necessarily a fatal condition. Your chances of survival can increase when cancer is diagnosed and treated early. Your doctor may combine these prostate cancer treatment options.

Hormone treatment for prostate cancer

Hormone therapy is one of the prostate cancer treatments designed to eliminate the male hormones (androgens) from your body. Cancer cells may be sensitive, insensitive or resistant to hormones. Eliminating the androgens in your body may inhibit growth of hormone sensitive cells and cause them to shrink.

Hormone therapy only slows down cancer growth. It may work effectively for years; however, the hormone-resistant cells eventually emerge and the cancer grows again.

Surgical treatments for prostate cancer

Surgery in prostate cancer treatments is often done with hormone-reduction objectives in mind. Your testicles are surgically removed to cut off the main source of male hormone production. The advantage of removing the testes is that your androgen production quickly drops after surgery.

The more radical surgical prostate treatment is removal of the prostate itself and surrounding cancerous tissues.

Radiation treatment for prostate cancer

For many radiation oncologists, radiation may be equally effective among prostate cancer treatments. The radioactive material is introduced into your body usually by chemical means. The radiation targets the areas with high concentrations of cancer cells. Some healthy cells may be affected in the process of radiation treatment for prostate cancer.


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