Prostate Cancer Treatments 2
For any man affected by prostate cancer, the best results will come if he has a low PSA level and if the disease has not spread too far. Your physician will regularly monitor your PSA levels after he initiates the primary therapy. You will want to begin treatment soon – the earlier the better.
Some forms of prostate cancer treatments involve radiation. This kills cancer cells, along with the tissues surrounding them, with exposure from directed radioactive waves.
The most commonly used type of radiation therapy is that of external beam radiotherapy. MRI’s and CT scans map out the tumor cells’ location, and then x-rays target those areas. With 3D radiotherapy, your physician can use a computerized program that maps out the precise location of the tumors, so that the most concentrated dose of radiation is targeted to the cancer cells in the prostate.
IMRT, or intensity-modulated radiation therapy, helps oncologists to change the intensity of the doses, and the beams, to target the precise areas for irradiation. This procedure delivers lowered doses to the cells that are closest to the rectal tissue and bladder. This allows the radiologist to deliver higher doses to the affected cancer cells without the risk of damaging the tissues surrounding the prostate. Radiation treatment usually runs a course of five days a week for seven to eight weeks, and are normally done as an outpatient.
Proton therapy is also being used to treat prostate cancer. The advantage to this is the precision available when aiming at a targeted tumor. Proton therapy does not damage the surrounding tissues like radiation therapy can. Proton therapy is especially valuable in treating solid, isolated tumors before they have a chance to spread elsewhere. Proton treatments are cost-prohibitive, and the equipment is very large. As the machines are made smaller with newer innovation, it should be available to more men with prostate cancer.
Bracytherapy is a procedure in which small metal pellets that contain radioactive palladium or iodine are inserted via needles into the prostate. The needles are inserted through the skin that rests behind the testicles. Precise maps ensure that all the seeds are placed in the proper areas. Over the course of a few months, the seeds irradiate the surrounding area, and kill the cancer cells. After about a year, the radiation degrades and the seeds that remain in your body are rendered harmless. Brachytherapy is not as commonly used as traditional radiation therapy, but it is gaining acceptance, mainly because you don’t have to visit the treatment center on a daily basis.
Hormone therapy uses estrogen against testosterone, which is the main fuel for the growth of cancer cells in the prostate. Hormone therapy stops testosterone from being released, or prevents the hormone from acting on the cells of the prostate. Hormone therapy is used on men with advancing cancer, but it is also now being used for those undergoing local treatment.