Treatment Options

If you have prostate cancer, the treatment your doctor or doctors suggest will depend on several factors, including your age, your general state of health, and the cancer itself—how aggressive it is and how far it has progressed.

 

At SCCA, you will be cared for by a care provider team who can offer you access to all the treatment options currently available, as well as new therapies offered only in clinical trials. This is one advantage of seeking treatment at SCCA, which has two strong research organizations behind it: Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and UW Medicine.

 

Prostate cancer is different from other cancers in that it grows slowly over 10 to 20 years—and may never move beyond the prostate. Therefore, it is unclear whether treatment always helps men with prostate cancer live longer. For some men, the side effects of some treatments—which may include impotence and incontinence—may be worse than the disease.

 

If you have localized prostate cancer, your doctor will probably recommend treating it with either surgery or radiation. At this point, no studies have definitively established that one treatment is better than the other. The choice that you make is a personal and individual one. The key to making a good decision is getting input from an experienced team of leading prostate cancer specialists who know what the outcomes and quality of life issues are with each treatment.

 

Chemotherapy is rarely used to treat prostate cancer initially, but it has been shown to benefit men whose prostate cancer has spread, or metastasized. If you have advanced prostate cancer, your doctor will probably recommend managing the disease with hormone therapy, radiation, or chemotherapy, rather than surgery.

 

There have been many advancements in radiation treatment over the years. In 2008, SCCA brought in new technology that improves external beam radiation treatment. Calypso Medical manufactures the Calypso® System now referred to as GPS for the Body® which provides clinicians with an innovative solution for target localization and continuous monitoring of the prostate in real time during radiation therapy delivery.

 

For more information on treatment options, go to:

Prostate Cancer Surgery

If your cancer is localized to the prostate, and you are in reasonably good health and younger than 75 years old, your doctors may recommend that you have surgery to treat your prostate cancer. The most common procedure is called a radical prostatectomy.

Radiation Therapy for Prostate Cancer

If you have localized prostate cancer, your doctor will probably give you a choice of treating your disease with either surgery or radiation. At this point, no studies have definitively established that one treatment is better than the other.

Hormone Therapy

If you have advanced prostate cancer at the time of your diagnosis, or if your PSA levels are rising despite having had other treatment for prostate cancer in the past, your doctor may suggest hormone therapy.

Chemotherapy for Prostate Cancer

If you have been diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer, or if your cancer has returned after previous treatment, your doctor may recommend chemotherapy.

Watchful Waiting

If you are a man who has been diagnosed with prostate cancer at age 70 or 75, your doctor may recommend "watchful waiting" rather than more aggressive treatment such as surgery or radiation therapy.

Treating Advanced Prostate Cancer

Despite treatment, prostate cancer sometimes recurs. A prostate tumor can grow beyond the prostate gland, and cancer cells also can travel through the lymph system or through the blood to reach other parts of the body, such as the bones.

New Treatments for Prostate Cancer

There have been many advancements in Radiation treatment over the years. External beam radiotherapy (EBRT), intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT), and 3D-Conformal Radiation Therapy (CRT) all accelerate subatomic particles called electrons to generate waves of high energy photon radiation.

GPS For the Body

We use the latest technology to provide the most precise treatment possible, including special equipment to detect motion and position of the prostate during radiation treatment.

Defining Prostate Treatment Outcomes

Understanding treatments and the quality of life issues that may result from each is an important part of deciding which treatment is right for you.

Cancer Control Outcomes with New Treatments

There have been a number of new technological advancements for localized prostate cancer treatment. The hope of any new technology is to improve cancer control and reduce side effects. Unfortunately, it can take many years to prove that new treatments are more or less effective, or have better or worse side effects.