Cases of prostate cancer have risen rapidly in the last few years. However, doctors and scientists have found various types of treatments that are effective in treating it. When the cancer is in its initial stages, the surgeons tend to treat cancer with local treatments. But when cancer spreads to other organs near the prostate, the doctors tend to go for systemic treatments. The decisions of treatments in any cancer type are made by the radiology oncologists, oncologists, and surgeons.
The types of treatments for prostate cancer are discussed below:
Local treatments
Local treatments are used when the cancer is specifically located in a single organ. When cancer is at its early stage, it tends to only be in the prostate gland. This type of cancer can be completely removed using radiation therapy and surgery.
The types of local treatments include:
- Surgery: In surgery, the prostate gland along with the lymph nodes are removed surgically. There are different surgical procedures like robotic prostatectomy, radial prostatectomy, TURP, bilateral orchiectomy, etc.
- Focal therapies: These therapies are targeted to the tumor cells without damaging the rest of the prostate. These are effective for low and intermediate-risk prostate. Cryoablation and HIFU are two focal therapy types.
- Radiation therapy:This therapy type is for destroying cancerous cells by using radiation. External beam radiation therapy is done by targeting the x-rays to the cancer cells from the external source. Proton therapy is also an external radiation type but uses proton rays. Internal radiation therapy uses radioactive material inserted in the prostate to destroy cancer cells.
Systemic treatments
Systemic treatments are done when cancer moves to other surrounding organs and parts of the prostate as well. With this, medication is mostly used to treat cancer. The medication is either injected into the prostate or is taken orally. Several types of systemic treatments like hormonal therapy, radiopharmaceuticals, targeted therapy, chemotherapy, etc.
Several treatments are used these days to treat this type of cancer. Medications are used in both initial-stage and late-stage cancers. One of the medications that are prescribed for treating prostate cancer is abiraterone.
