Treatment of Prostate Cancer

Treatment of Prostate Cancer

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Below is an extract from the ebook "Dealing with Prostate Cancer"

reatment

Prostate Cancer

Treatment options for prostate cancer include radiation therapy, surgery, hormonal therapy, proton
therapy, chemotherapy, or a combination of all these.

As prostate cancer is normally a disease of elderly men, many die of other causes rather than
prostate cancer.

Surgical removal of the prostate is a treatment option if prostate cancer is in the early stages, or if
radiation therapy does not bring any results.

Response to initial treatments is often the main determining factor for the outcome of the disease.

Doctors often debate whether to treat localized prostate cancer. They must judge the beneficial
and harmful effects of prostate cancer treatments and how they could affect your survival chances
and the quality of life.

Your diet also plays an important role in development of prostate cancer. A diet rich in red meat,
fatty substances and dairy products may encourage the development of prostate cancer.

Some claim that a generous intake of vegetables and fruits may lower the incidence of prostate
cancer.

Green leafy vegetables and tomatoes are recommended.

Tomatoes and tomato products contain high levels of lycopene which may help to protect against
prostate cancer.

Lycopene is a chemical occurring naturally in tomatoes, watermelons, pink grapefruits, papaya, and
guava. Cooked tomatoes are more effective as cooking releases this chemical from their storage
spots and helps in easy absorption.

Low intake of omega-3 fatty acids (found in fatty fishes like salmon), insufficient intake of vitamin E
(present in green, leafy vegetables) and the mineral selenium may increase the risk of prostate
cancer.

Insufficient exposure to ultraviolet (UV) light lowers the vitamin D content in the body which may
increase the risk of prostate cancer.

Certain medications may also lower the risk of prostate cancer. Daily use of anti-inflammatory
medicines like: aspirin, ibuprofen, or naproxen, and cholesterol-lowering drugs like statins are
believed by some to possibly decrease the risk of prostate cancer.

Frequent ejaculation can decrease prostate cancer risks.

Infections and inflammation of the prostate gland are very high-risk factors for prostate cancer.

Sexually transmitted infections, like chlamydia, gonorrhea, or syphilis, increase the risk of prostate
cancer.

Obesity and high levels of testosterone in the blood may pose higher risks of prostate cancer.

Treatment Options for Prostate Cancer

The choice of any specific prostate cancer treatment option depends on a number of factors.

Some of these include:

your age
your general health
your mental stability
the extent of progress of your prostate cancer
side effects of different treatment options, and
the effectiveness of the treatment options.

It is not easy to make such a difficult decision. You may want to discuss with your family and
friends or get opinions of other doctors.

You may want to talk with other patients and learn of their experiences.

But, it has to be in accord with what the medical fraternity thinks is the best for your situation.

Prostate Cancer Treatment Options

Treatment options normally depend on the extent of your prostate cancer. If your prostate cancer
has spread to major body parts, radiation or surgery could be the best options.

If it is in the initial stages, active surveillance may be a good option.

(I) Radiation Therapy

This therapy uses high radiation levels to kill the cancer cells or restrict their growth with minimum
damage to other healthy body cells.

Radiation therapy is of two types:

External radiation with the help of a radiation machine directed at the prostate and Internal
radiation by implanting radioisotopes through thin plastic tubes into the affected area either
permanently or temporarily.

External Radiation sessions normally consist of five days each week spread over eight to nine
weeks. The radiation therapist would place you in a specific position on the treatment table. The
radiation treatment then starts with the help of the radiation machine.

You do not feel anything during the treatment. This treatment involves passing the radiation rays
through your body to kill cancerous cells.

Therapists take weekly X-rays or port films to check if the treatment is addressing the affected
area specifically. These X-rays do not provide any information about the progress of your disease.

Therapists could also mark specific areas on your skin as an identification mark.

Side Effects: Skin exposed to radiation could become swollen, reddish, sensitive and warm.
Sometimes, it could peel around the area. Skin reactions are temporary and go away after four to
six weeks of completion of treatment.

Hair loss and increased perspiration are added side effects.

Long-term side effects include enlarged pores, darkening of skin, thickening of tissue and change
in sensitivity levels of skin, urinary problems like frequency and bleeding and erectile dysfunction.

Radiation therapy could make you feel mildly fatigued, although you can continue with your regular
routine. It is best to plan and pace your activities and take lots of rest.

Eating nutritious and well-balanced meals can help you overcome fatigue.

(a) 3-D conformal radiation therapy with CT

If your cancer is localized within the prostate, undergoing 3-D conformal radiation therapy with CT
may deliver results that are more precise. Radiation is from different directions and minimizes
damage to normal tissues.

This therapy can cause side effects like diarrhea, inflammation of the rectum, impotence and
incontinence.

(b) Intensity-Modulated Radiotherapy (IMRT)

Intensity-Modulated Radiotherapy (IMRT) is a very precise and advanced technique of delivering
radiation beams according to the shape and depth of the prostate cancer.

After completion of radiation therapy sessions, you have to schedule your follow-up tests and
checkups with your doctor.

(II) Radioactive Seed Implants

This is another type of radiation therapy. This is the same as Brachytherapy. It involves planting of
radioisotopes permanently or temporarily. This is a newer treatment option for prostate cancer. It
is claimed to be as effective as regular external radiation and radical prostatectomy in ten-year
follow-up studies.

Permanent Brachytherapy (Low Dose Rate or LDR)

Your doctor implants around forty to a hundred iodine-125 or palladium-103 radioactive seeds into
the prostate gland with the help of an ultrasound. Implantation is according to a computer-
generated plan best suited for your condition. These implants become inert after a specific period,
although they remain permanently within your prostate. These implants help deliver maximum
radiation within your prostate without affecting other body tissues.

Temporary Brachytherapy (High Dose Rate or HDR)

This involves placing hollow needles filled with iridium-192 into the prostate for around five to
fifteen minutes. Then, your doctor removes the iridium and the needles.

You undergo two or three similar sessions spread over several days. The implants remain
permanently but they become inert after about ten months.

The entire procedure could take around an hour and a half each time.

This treatment best suits prostate cancer patients with PSA levels lower than 10, Gleason score
equivalent or less than six, almost no abnormality on the digital rectal exam, less aggressive
cancer, and cancerous growth restricted within the prostate.

Side Effects: These are primarily urinary-related. They include frequent urination, inability to totally
empty the bladder and a burning sensation during urination.

Diarrhea, rectal bleeding, and urinary incontinence as side effects are very rare. The impotence
rate could be 25% after five years of treatment and could increase to 50% if you also undergo
hormone therapy.

You should restrict prolonged contact with children and pregnant women for around two months
after treatment.

(III) Chemotherapy

This treatment option is specifically for recurrent or advanced prostate cancer cases. It could also
deliver results where hormone treatment has been ineffective.

Chemotherapy is not for treating prostate cancer in the early stages. The complete treatment
extends for three to six months according to the type of chemotherapy medications.

The treatment is divided into specific cycles and recovery periods.

Chemotherapy medications are normally given intravenously and rarely through the mouth. The
drugs pass through the bloodstream and reach cancerous cells anywhere in the body.

This treatment helps shrink cancer cells and may make them disappear completely.

Side Effects: Just as chemotherapy kills the fast-dividing cancer cells, it also kills healthy cells
across the hair follicles, gastrointestinal tract lining, membranes lining the mouth and in the bone
marrow.

However, these are temporary side effects and the healthy cells may soon grow back.

Other side effects include loss of appetite, hair loss, diarrhea, vomiting, nausea, mouth sores and
permanent infertility.

A low count of white blood cells increases the risks of infection, while a low count of blood platelets
and red blood cells may cause anemic fatigue and bleeding or bruising from minor injuries.

You can take medications for these side effects according to the advice of your doctor.

(IV) Radical Prostatectomy

This is surgical removal of the prostate gland with some of the surrounding tissues. Doctors may
prescribe this treatment for men under the age of seventy without any major health problems if
your prostate cancer is localized.

Radical prostatectomy is of two types:

Retropubic prostatectomy and Perineal prostatectomy

Retropubic prostatectomy: Your surgeon makes an incision in the lower abdomen to remove the
prostate, surrounding tissue and lymph nodes if necessary.

The surgeon would locate nerves on either side of the prostate and check if prostate cancer has
spread to these nerves. The surgeon would not remove them if they are not affected, as these
nerves are necessary for an erection. This will reduce the chances of erectile dysfunction and
incontinence after the surgery.

The surgery could last two to four hours.

Perineal prostatectomy: With this surgery, the surgeon makes an incision in the skin between the
scrotum and the anus. The surgeon, if necessary, removes the prostate and some lymph nodes.

This surgery is not very common as it is difficult to use nerve-sparing techniques.

This surgery could take a little less time than retropubic surgery.

Surgery risks involve bleeding, infection and blood clots in your legs that might sometimes travel to
the lungs (Medical staff monitor you for any sign of clots).

The recovery period for these operations is normally a stay of three days at the hospital. You may
have to stay away from work for around three to five weeks.

Surgeons normally insert a catheter through the penis into the bladder during the surgery. This
remains so for ten to twenty-one days to help easy urination during the recovery period.

Side Effects: These include urinary incontinence and impotence. But, you may recover normal
continence levels within six months of surgery.

(V) Laparoscopic Prostate Surgery

This surgery is done with the help of a laparoscope. This has a special camera. The surgeon makes
small incisions of five to ten millimeters below the belly and passes carbon dioxide through a small
tube. This lifts the abdominal wall and allows a clearer view through the laparoscope.

The laparoscope transmits a picture of the prostate onto a video monitor.

This surgery is the best option if your prostate cancer is not aggressive and has not spread
beyond the prostate. However, if you have had any pelvic laparoscopic surgery or undergone
hormone treatment for prostate cancer, you should not opt for this treatment.

This surgery is less invasive, recovery time is less and you need fewer medications.

Chances of infection are very low and your hospital stay is much shorter. You can go back to work
within two to three weeks. The effectiveness of this treatment option is the same as that of the
other operations.

Side Effects: These are similar to invasive surgery; side effects may include impotence and
incontinence. Urinary infections may exist for the initial two to three months.

As this technique is comparatively new, there is not enough evidence as to whether it leads to
higher rates of potency.

For around six months, you should refrain from lifting heavy loads or do any abdominal exercises
like sit-ups.

(VI) Hormone Therapy

This treatment involves removal or blocking of hormones to treat prostate cancer. It is the same as
androgen suppression therapy or androgen deprivation therapy.

This treatment may be effective if your prostate cancer has spread
outside the prostate. It may reduce the progression of the cancer effectively and offer better
survival rates.

In some cases, doctors recommend hormone treatment after surgery for better treatment of
prostate cancer.

The prostate grows further if exposed to the male hormone testosterone and androgens. Hormone
treatment can stop production of testosterone and all androgens temporarily or permanently.

This treatment can be through injections, pills, and drugs.

Occasionally, it involves surgical removal of the testicles that produce testosterone. This prevents
any further stimulation of prostate cancer.

Sometimes, hormone therapy is used as an effective treatment option before, during or after local
treatment.

The LHRH or GnRH is a luteinizing releasing hormone, and Gonadotropin-releasing hormone is one
of the most important hormones released by the body before production of testosterone.

Hormone therapy aims at blocking the release of LHRH or GnRH through use of LHRH agonists or
LHRH analogues.

Doctors normally prescribe monthly shots of Eligard, Lupron, Viadur, Trelstar and Zoladex. In some
cases, dosage could be tri-monthly, quarterly or yearly depending on the aggressiveness of your
prostate cancer.

Most of the cancerous cells in the prostate respond positively after removal of testosterone. Yet,
some cancerous cells grow independently of testosterone.

Hormone therapy is unable to kill these cancerous cells. So, despite undergoing hormone therapy,
cancer may still spread within your body.

Hormone therapy is not always a very effective treatment option.

But, it may contain and restrict your prostate cancer.

Orchiectomy

Some men choose to undergo Orchiectomy. This is surgical removal of the testicles. Since over
ninety percent of testosterone production is in the testicles, removing them can be a good option.

Nonetheless, orchiectomy being a nonreversible and a permanent surgical solution, many men are
adverse to it and opt for drug therapy instead.

(VII) Active Surveillance

Although this is not a treatment option in the strictest meaning of the term, it is a way of
combating prostate cancer.

If surgery or hormone treatments do not seem viable, you can adopt a wait and watch attitude to
follow up your prostate cancer.

However, you still need to undergo PSA and DRE examinations every six months, with a yearly
biopsy.

Your doctors will have to review the progress of your prostate cancer minutely. If there are any
indications of a growing prostate cancer with any advancing symptoms, doctors would then advise
immediate surgery or other more suitable treatment options.

This technique is a good choice for men with slow-growing cancers or if you have other serious
medical conditions that could shorten your lifespan.

(VIII) Other Treatment Options

Although surgery, hormone treatment and radiation therapy are the traditional treatment options
available, there are a few less popular treatment options also. These include:

(a) Cryotherapy: This treatment option has been available for some time but is used rarely. This
surgery involves insertion of probes into the prostate through the perineum and passing of liquid
nitrogen or argon gas through it. This freezes prostate tumors and cells.

However, it can cause serious erectile and urinary dysfunction. This therapy is the same as
cryoablation or cryosurgery. If you have been using hormone or radiation therapy, this option may
not deliver good results.

(b) High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound: This treatment option involves killing prostate cells with
heat. Through this treatment, a probe is inserted into the rectum through which high-intensity
ultrasound waves are delivered. This treatment option is still in the experimental stages.

(IX) Emerging Therapies

Scientists and researchers are trying to discover newer therapies to overcome shortcomings of the
therapies and treatments in use for prostate cancer. Often, prevalent treatments destroy existing
good cells of the body and thereby reduce the capability of the overall immune system.

However, the FDA has not yet approved any specific therapy for use in prostate cancer.

Nonetheless, researchers are sure that soon there could be more targeted therapies for use in
treatment of prostate cancer.

They believe that these therapies might offer better results and possibly with less severe side-
effects or no side-effects.

Herbal Treatments for Prostate Cancer

Imbalance of proper diet intake is claimed by some people to have led to the many chronic
diseases we have today.

Herbal systems attempt to balance the body with enough nutrients.

But, there is no scientific study of treatment through herbal treatments.

There are claims of herbal treatments making a difference. However, be very cautious in your
approach about herbal treatments.

Take the medication only after full consultation with your doctor and under guidance, because
there have been reports of side effects such as:

Venous thrombosis, a condition where blood clots in the vein,
Tenderness of breasts and
Decline in the desire for sex.

There is a herbal treatment for prostate cancer derived from the stinging nettle, an herb.

Cernilton

Cernilton is another herbal treatment that is gaining popularity among the herbal cure advocates.
Cernilton is made out of rye pollen extract, and is used for treatment of prostatitis and BPH.

Flavonoids

Citrus fruits, onions, green tea, red-wine, parsley, and soybeans are rich in Flavanoids, which have
antioxidant properties.

Lycopene

Lycopene is claimed by some people to be good for people with prostate cancer. Research has
revealed that eating cooked tomatoes may help to reduce the risk of prostate cancer in men. Some
people claim that if men consumed ten or more tomato-based meals per week then they may be
forty-five percent less likely to develop prostate cancer.

Apart from tomatoes, watermelons, grapefruits and guavas are rich in lycopene.

Pygeum

Pygeum is another popular herbal preparation promoted by many people. Pygeum is an indigenous
African treatment that is obtained from the bark of the tree. The herbal solution contains DHT
inhibiting chemicals, which is claimed by some people to be helpful when treating an enlarged
prostate.

Saw Palmetto

Seronoa Repens, or Saw Palmetto, is claimed by some people to have therapeutic properties that
may help to relieve some symptoms or effects of prostate cancer. The DHT hormone
(Dihydrotestosterone) is responsible for prostate disorder and Saw Palmetto is claimed by some
people to reduce the DHT production which might help to prevent inflammation of the prostate and
its enlargement.

Selenium

Selenium is a mineral found in the prostate. The decrease in its level in the prostate may be a
factor in various problems. Foods that are rich in Selenium are chicken, shellfish, grains and garlic.

Zinc-Rich Foods

Zinc, the mineral, is also found in the prostate. A decrease of the zinc level in the prostate may be
a factor in various complications of the prostate.

Foods that are rich in zinc are clams, lamb chops, wheat germ, whole oatmeal, oysters, pumpkin
seeds and sunflower seeds.

Recommendations

Before you start with any kind of treatment, always consult your physician. Your physician can
provide you the right advice for the best utilization of herbal supplements in the prevention or
treatment of prostate cancer.

Above is an extract from the ebook "Dealing with Prostate Cancer".

You have found the above information useful, right? Read on to find out more about this very
informative eBook.

"You have prostate cancer and here is the prognosis...."

Imagine hearing such dreaded words and feel frightened and panic stricken!

It has been estimated in US alone, there will be more that 186,000+ new prostate cancer cases
and almost 29,000 deaths from prostate cancer.

Many people assume that prostate cancer only attacks the elderly and figure they'll just wait and
hope for the best. Bad decision. While the majority of cases do occur in men over 70, it has been
known to attack men as young as 50.

The disease also crosses ethnic lines and is the second most common malignant cancer in men.
African American men are at a higher risk than white men including Hispanic men.

According to the National Cancel Institute, "Dramatic differences in the incidence of prostate cancer
are also seen in different populations around the world." This is telling because there may be
dietary or other environmental factors involved.

Getting all the answers

Just like any disease, the earlier the detection the better the chances of beating it. That's all well
and good, but how do you know if you are at risk or heaven forbid, already showing symptoms?
What are the symptoms? You really need to have a good resource available for reference.

That's where "Dealing With Prostate Cancer" rides in to give you all the information you need to be
prepared. So often when dealing with a serious medical situation just having answers can bring
some much needed relief.

"Dealing With Prostate Cancer" understands your fears and provides you with answers to those
most burning questions. A few examples of what will help to ease your mind are:

What are the different types of prostate cancer

What is the progression or stages of the disease

How common is prostate cancer

Analysis of who is at risk for prostate cancer

What symptoms should be watched for

How should the disease be treated

Are there alternative therapies for prostate cancer

Your immune system and prostate cancer

Does prostate cancer make a man impotent

Nutrition and diet for prostate patients

The right exercises your doctor may consider

Is it possible to father children after treatment

Can prostate cancer be prevented

Put your fears and anxiety behind you once and for all! Get the answers to these burning
questions and MUCH MORE inside "Dealing With Prostate Cancer."

You owe it to yourself and your loved ones to get the answers. Fear of the unknown is the worst
case enemy you need to fight. Getting the answers to the unknown is the first step to peace of
mind and living a long and healthy life!

Do it right now while you are focused. Don't wait until it's too late!


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