What Is The Best Prostate Cancer Treatment
What is the best prostate cancer treatment? This question has haunted millions of men and their doctors for well over one hundred years. And the thing is there may not be a definitive answer for the question. However, it is the intent of this article to give you food for thought and might help you form some questions to ask your doctor.
First let's get this out of the way. This article is not intended as medical advice, nor should it be taken as medical advice. It is for informational purposes only. As always with a physical illness you should consult your personal physician right away. Now you can read on for more information.
There are many factors which have to be taken under consideration, by you and your medical team, before locking in the proper treatment for you. What makes this difficult is each individual man diagnosed with prostate cancer is going to be different from the other guy. One guy may be in almost perfect health, except for the beginning stage of the malignancy. The next guy may have other life threatening diseases, which will restrict the type of treatment to be given.
Now here is one thing which may well upset you. Depending on what stage your prostate cancer is in your Doctor may well prescribe not to do anything. That's right! He may just want you to wait and watch. The reason for this is prostate cancer is so slow growing and the symptoms are so slow developing, he may not know which treatment may be the best for you. However, this period of watching will make sure your team of medical professionals gets your treatment right, the first time around.
Now that you are over your shock here is some more information which may ease your mind.
The truth is the best prostate cancer treatment may well only be one type of treatment or it may be a combination of several. In other words again depending on the stage level of your illness one or more treatments will be recommended. This can be a complex decision so you may want to get a second opinion. Don’t hesitate to get that 2nd opinion if you are uncomfortable with your team’s recommendation. In the next few moments you will read more about some of these treatments or combinations thereof.
Depending on whether your cancer has spread into the close surrounding tissue of the prostrate or has remained localized (remain inside the prostate) radiotherapy by itself may be used. This treatment is administered by a focused x-ray beam directly to the prostate gland. It can also be used if the tumor has masticated and infected the immediate surrounding tissue or lymph’s of the prostate.
Although some of the tumor has broken off and spread to the tissues it still may be considered to be localized. When this does happen the most effective treatment may be a combination of radiotherapy and perhaps hormone therapy. This means the infected areas will receive radioactive waves plus a hormone which will block the male testosterone being release into the prostate.
However, you may also find your medical team will recommend the above treatment combined with a radical prostatectomy. What this means for you is of course removal of the prostate and the radioactive treatment to the surrounding tissues. With the advances made in medical technology, such as laser beams, the prostatectomy can be performed with little or no damage done to the surrounding nerves and nerve endings.
That is really good news for the majority of men now, as it means you will not have anywhere near the problems with erectile dysfunction, as so many did in the past years.
In conclusion common sense tells you that you have many options as for as to the treatment you will receive for prostate cancer. But as stated above it is important for you to consult your medical team before deciding on the best prostate cancer treatment.
