Prostate Cancer

Treatment

Some of the treatment options for prostate cancer are:

• Monitoring: No treatment is generally required in low-grade prostate cancer cases. In some cases, the treatment is not required at all. However, a cancer specialist may advise the patient for active surveillance. The patient should visit the hospital as per the schedule. The patients may expect rectal examinations, blood tests, and prostate biopsies during active surveillance to determine if the cancer is progressing. If the results for progression are positive, appropriate treatment, such as medications or surgery, may be recommended.
• Radiation therapy: Radiation therapy involves using high-energy radiation to damage cancer cells. The radiation therapy may be delivered from outside the body in which the radiations are guided from a machine on the prostate tumor (external beam radiation) or by placing the device with radioactive material near or into the prostate tumor (brachytherapy).
• Surgery: Depending on how fast your cancer is growing and considering other factors, your cancer specialist may recommend a surgery. The surgery involves the removal of the prostate gland along with the surrounding healthy tissues and the nearby lymph nodes. The surgery may be robot-assisted laparoscopic prostatectomy (minimally invasive surgery) or retropubic surgery.
• Ablative therapies: Ablative therapies involve destroying the cancer cells with heat or cold. Cryoablation is the procedure that involves freezing the prostate tissue with a very cold gas followed by thawing and repetition of the procedure. This cycle destroys the tumor cells along with surrounding healthy tissues. The oncologist may also use high-intensity focused ultrasound to damage the tumor cells by heating.
• Immunotherapy: Immunotherapy enhances the immune system of the body to fight against cancer cells. There are two techniques used in immunotherapy. The first technique involves obtaining certain immune cells of the body, engineering them to fight against the prostate cancer cells, and delivering them back into the body. Another technique is to make the cancerous cells more vulnerable to attack by the immune cells.
• Hormone therapy: Prostate cancer requires progesterone for growth, development, and spread. Blocking the supply of progesterone kills cancer cells. The techniques used in hormone therapy include using medications that either stop the synthesis of progesterone or block progesterone from reaching the prostate cancer cells. The cancer specialist may also recommend orchiectomy (a process of removing the testicles).
• Chemotherapy: The oncologist advises the patients to chemotherapy if cancer has spread to other body organs. Chemotherapy is also recommended when cancer does not respond to hormone therapy.
• Targeted therapy: There are specific abnormalities present in the cancer cells. The targeted therapy aims to target these abnormalities to damage the cancer cells. The cancer specialist recommends the targeted therapy in advanced or recurrent prostate cancer or patients not responding to hormone therapy.