What treatments are available for prostate cancer?
Sometimes prostate cancers are so slow growing that no treatment is needed. ‘Watchful waiting’ is used in these cases, with regular monitoring of the patient to find out if the cancer changes. However, when treatment is necessary, there are four main types used:
Surgery – in an operation called a prostatectomy, the whole prostate gland is removed.
Radiotherapy – in radiation treatment, high energy rays kill the cancer cells. This will destroy the original tumour and also reduces the pain caused by tumour cells which have spread to the bones.
Brachytherapy – this is a newer type of radiotherapy in which small radioactive pellets or wires are inserted directly into the tumour, killing it from the inside. This is at least as effective as the other treatments.
Hormone therapy – since the growth and division of the prostate cancer cells depends on androgens (the male hormones), drugs can be used to either reduce the level of androgens produced by the body or block the effect of androgens on the cancer cells. These stop the growth of the tumour and sometimes shrink it. However, after a while (anything between 3 and 20 years), most prostate cancers develop the ability to grow without androgens and the hormone therapy stops working.
