Medical Treatments for Prostate Cancer

There are many different medical treatments for prostate cancer that involve the clinical care of a healthcare professional. These treatments include expectant therapy, surgery, radiation therapy, hormone therapy, and chemotherapy. Expectant therapy is to carefully observe and monitor the prostate cancer. Because prostate cancer cells often spread very slowly, many older men who have the disease may not need more extensive treatment. However, expectant therapy usually includes routine physician examinations, including digital rectal exams and PSA tests. The different types of surgery for prostate cancer are radical prostatectomy - an open-surgery procedure in which the entire prostate gland and surrounding tissue are removed. Transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP) - surgery to remove part of the prostate gland that surrounds the urethra. Cryosurgery - this procedure involves killing the cancer cells by freezing them with a small metal tool placed in the tumor. Side effects of prostate cancer surgery include incontinence and impotence. Incontinence is the inability to control urine and may result in dribbling of urine, especially immediately after surgery. Normal control usually returns within weeks or months after surgery. Impotence is the inability to achieve an erection. For a month, or so, after surgery, most men are not able to get an erection. Eventually, approximately 40 to 60 percent of men will be able to get an erection sufficient for sexual intercourse, but without ejaculation of semen, since removal of the prostate gland prevents that process.

Radiation therapy uses high energy rays to kill or shrink cancer cells, and to decrease their ability to divide. Radiation is often used to treat prostate cancer that is still confined to the prostate gland, or has spread only to nearby tissue. If the disease is advanced, radiation may be used to reduce the size of the tumor and to provide relief from symptoms. Possible side effects of radiation for prostate cancer may include diarrhea, with or without blood in the stool, and colitis, problems associated with urination, a degree of impotence (inability to get an erection), which may occur within two years of radiation therapy.

The goal of hormone therapy is to lower the level of male hormones in the body, particularly testosterone. Hormone therapy does not cure the cancer, and is often used to treat persons whose cancer has spread or recurred after treatment. Produced mainly in the testicles, testosterone causes prostate cancer cells to grow. Thus, reduced testosterone levels can make the prostate cancer shrink and become less active. Most studies show that hormone therapy works better if it is started early. Chemotherapy is the use of powerful, anti-cancer medications to kill cancer cells.. Hospitalization may be needed to monitor treatment and chemotherapy's side effects. Common side effects of chemotherapy include: nausea and vomiting, hair loss, anemia, reduced ability of blood to clot, mouth sores, increased likelihood of developing infections, fatigue. Most side effects disappear once treatment is stopped.

nerve sparing prostate cancer surgery
The Cancer Council New South Wales :: Understanding Prostate
Understanding Prostate Cancer - Treatment. Surgery explained; Side effects; Nerve-sparing surgery; Key hole surgery; Transurethral resection

Prostate Cancer
Nerve-Sparing Techniques. Surgical procedures have been refined over the years, and many operations for localized low-grade prostate cancer now spare the

Prostate Cancer Surgery on MedicineNet.com
The frightening side effects of prostate cancer surgery. Nerve-sparing surgery might be expected to reduce the rate of impotence as a side effect.

Nerve-Sparing Radical Prostatectomy | Prostate Cancer Information
The nerve-sparing technique is a modified form of radical retropubic prostate cancer reports an 86 percent potency rate 18 months after surgery1, 2.

Sloan-Kettering - Prostate Cancer Treatment & Investigational
The goal of prostate cancer surgery is to completely eliminate a patient's after surgery, even in cases where surgeons use a sophisticated nerve-sparing

How Nerve Sparing Surgery Saved My Husband's Ability to Have
How Nerve Sparing Surgery Saved My Husband's Ability to Have Normal Sex and I am blesses that my husband survived the Prostate Cancer and that I can

Genitourinary Center - Prostate Cancer Surgery Including
Nerve-sparing surgery is performed during a prostatectomy in order to preserve an alternative to standard "open" surgery for treating prostate cancer.

Prostate Cancer and Prostatic Diseases - Potency after unilateral
Potency after unilateral nerve sparing surgery: a report on functional and oncological prostate cancer, nerve sparing surgery, potency. Top of page

Sophisticated prostate cancer surgery helps spare potency, UPMC
At UPMC, surgeons perform a sophisticated procedure called nerve-sparing surgery, which helps to improve the quality of life for prostate cancer survivors.

Prostate Cancer and Erectile Dysfunction - WebMD
Though prostate cancer is not a cause of erectile dysfunction, Recovery of erectile function after a non-nerve-sparing surgery is unlikely, but possible

Dr. Catalona - Prostate Cancer, PSA Study, and Nerve Sparing
Dr. Catalona's Urological Research Foundation provides prostate cancer To schedule surgery, please contact Dr. Catalona at (312) 695-4471 or via email

Brigham and Women's Hospital
OR-Live.com presents bilateral nerve sparing radical prostatectomy, from Brigham and Women's Replay of Improved Surgical Techniques for Prostate Cancer

Prostate Cancer: Surgery
A description of the surgery performed to cure prostate cancer, Nerve sparing and non-nerve sparing techniques, the indications and problems are described.

Radical prostatectomy
Nerve sparing surgery is only suitable for men with very early prostate cancers. The cancer must be completely inside the prostate (as it is for all total

Nerve-Sparing Prostate Surgery Improves With New Device
Nerve-sparing surgery using the CaverMap may be appropriate for about half of all prostate cancer patients. CaverMap candidates have cancer that is confined

Johns Hopkins - Brady Urological Institute- Prostate Cancer Update
ÁœNerve-sparingÁ« Surgery Turns 20. FLASHBACK: The bad old days, the late 1970s. Doctors who treated prostate cancer had few weapons in their arsenal.

Urology at Hopkins: Brady Urological Institute
It is not enough to diagnose prostate cancer early, if the cure is perceived as worse than the disease Nerve-Sparing Laparoscopic Radical Prostatectomy

Prostate Cancer, Nerve-Sparing Surgery, Seattle, Washington
About half of all men in the United States who have prostatectomies opt for a relatively new technique called nerve-sparing surgery, which saves the nerves

Prostate Cancer, Treatment Options, Seattle, Washington, Surgery
If you have localized prostate cancer, your doctor will probably recommend treating it with either surgery or radiation. At this point, no studies have


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