Treatment Options
(in alphabetical order)
Depending on a number of factors such as your age,
the stage and Gleason score of your cancer, your consultant may suggest
you consider a range of treatments. The question of which treatment
is suitable in your case will depend on scan results, your general state
of health and your personal preferences.
If the cancer is small and confined to the prostate gland, it is possible
to treat it by either Radiotherapy, Brachytherapy or Surgery.
Active Surveillance
Do not be surprised if your Urologist recommends having no treatment.
This process is called ’active surveillance’ and is often
suited to older men with non-aggressive cancers. Active surveillance
aims to individualise the management of early prostate cancer by selecting
only those men with significant cancers for curative treatment.
Brachytherapy
This a 2 stage treatment for early prostate cancer in which tiny radioactive
seeds are implanted under anaesthetic, directly into the cancerous prostate
gland.
Chemotherapy
Chemotherapy, usually in tablet form, involves powerful drugs to attack
the cancer cells and try to prevent them growing. It is a second line
of defence for patients with advanced stage prostate cancer that is
no longer controlled by Hormone therapy.
Cryosurgery
A minimally invasive treatment where the cancer is frozen and killed.
May be used as a first line option or when the tumour recurs after radiotherapy.
GreenLight Laser
GreenLight laser is now available to treat prostatic obstruction due
to benign enlargement of the prostate, (BPH) and also patients with
prostate cancer. The advantage is that there is significantly less bleeding
and a reduced hospital stay.
HiFu (High Intensity Frequency Ultrasound)
This procedure enables temperatures of up to 100 degrees
centigrade to be generated at a precise focus within the prostate gland.
At this temperature cancer is detroyed but allows sparing of adjacent
normal tissue.
Hormone therapy
When the cancer has spread beyond the prostate, going
to either the lymph nodes or bones, hormone therapy may be very effective
at shrinking the tumour and reducing the side effects of the disease.
It does not provide a cure, but will often keep the cancer in check
for a number of years.
Radiotherapy
May be applied using different techniques, External Beam, Conformal
and the latest IMRT (Intensity Modulated Radiotherapy). It involves
directing high-energy radiation at the tumour. Conformal and IMRT treatments
use a computer to ‘shape’ the radiotherapy beams to a more
exact shape of your prostate. This minimises the amount of healthy body
tissue that receives radiation.
Recurrence
Recurrence after radiotherapy can be treated by cryotherapy and recurrence
after surgery can be treated by external beam radiotherapy. These treatments
can only be used if the recurrence is localised to the pelvis and not
due to metastases.
Surgery
This involves the total removal of the prostate gland in an operation
called a Radical Prostatectomy. It is done in the hope of removing all
of the cancer contained within the gland.